The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions. Ruth Edwards Dudley

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СКАЧАТЬ pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

      Having your conversation honest amongst the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

      Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

      Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

      For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

      As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

      Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

      Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

      For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

      For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

      The message could not have been plainer, and it was echoed by other platform speakers who implicitly or explicitly urged restraint. Here are a few extracts from speeches which – apart from coded messages about Drumcree – are typical of how Orangemen greet each other from platforms.

      Right Worshipful County Grand Master, Most Worshipful Imperial Grand Master, Most Worshipful Brother Saulters, County and District Officers, brethren, sisters, ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure and privilege to have the distinct honour indeed to be here today at such an excellent gathering. As I look out across this wonderful crowd, the colourful display, the respect, the dignity and the discipline that we’ve just shown, it typifies what many Orange gatherings are about and that they do no harm to anybody whatsoever … I would like bring to the members of Donegal County Grand Orange Lodge fraternal greetings from the County Fermanagh Grand Orange Lodge. It is a pleasure indeed and a privilege to represent County Fermanagh here this afternoon and I look forward to welcoming those of you who can come next Saturday to County Fermanagh to our demonstration there.

      Orangemen know what they’re about. They show that responsibility, that dignity, that restraint and that discipline. That’s what we are about. That’s what we project to the world. That’s what I trust, ladies and gentlemen, we always will be about.

      It’s been my pleasure to be here and I thank Donegal for the warmth of welcome, for their hospitality and for the real dignity that they have shown this afternoon. Thank you very much.

      He was answered by an aged Orangeman.

      Thanks, Brother Foster, for your kind words. In regard of the County of Donegal I could be possibly one of the oldest Orangemen here today. I have been connected with the County Donegal Grand Lodge for over sixty years, and I have been attending the Twelfth of July parades for somewhere around seventy-five years. And I want people to see the way the Orangemen here and our brothers of Northern Ireland are and we never had no friction whatsoever. We came and went home peacefully and quietly and there was no act of discredit to our collarettes.

      Then Antrim:

Most Worshipful Grand Master, Imperial Grand Master, Worshipful County Grand Master, brethren, sisters and friends.^* Being the last speaker I feel that I want to on this first occasion associate myself sincerely with all that the previous speakers have said. I came down with the North Antrim District Lodge and we had a wonderful trip down. This has been my first time down into the demonstration here and I would like to take this opportunity today on behalf of County Antrim Grand Orange Lodge to bring the good wishes of our County to the brethren of County Donegal here and all the brethren in the Republic of Ireland. We do appreciate what you have done for the good of our institution and we do wish and pray them God’s help as they work for the extension of God’s Kingdom here. Thank you very much indeed.

Finally there were the ‘few words of thanks’ on behalf of the County Grand Master, officers and members of County Donegal Grand Orange Lodge to all the brethren of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, county officers, district officers, sisters, today ‘for this grand and glorious day that we’re having here in Rossnowlagh’. There were thanks too to the ‘Reverend Brother’ who had conducted the service, to the giver of the ‘inspiring address’, to all the visiting lodges and bands who had attended, to County Grand Lodge for leading the parade, to the brethren of the district and the lodges for all their support and ‘heartfelt thanks to the Grand Master for visiting us, thanks to the ladies of Rossnowlagh, thanks to the owner of the land … we hope with God’s help that we’ll all be here next year … and may God bless you all and have a safe journey home and may we have a pleasant weekend’.^*

      Gerry and I walked back to the car park ahead of the parade. He had to file a report and I was rushing back to Northern Ireland to get the low-down on the latest negotiations over Drumcree.

      8. Lurgan, 26 October 1997

      It was Reformation Sunday. I had been held up in Belfast and had to drive at illegal speeds to get to Lurgan before the parade set off. I am vague about distances, but I realized I was getting close when soldiers, police and Land Rovers began to appear.

      As I reached Lurgan and parked the car at the end of the main street, I could see a ceremony was in full swing. Denis Watson, the County Armagh Grand Master, and officials of the Lurgan male and female lodges were laying wreaths at the war memorial. Watching respectfully were twenty or thirty men in suits, a couple of dozen women in big Sunday hats and maybe twenty girls. All were wearing Orange collarettes.

      Standing slightly to the side were the preacher for the day, the Reverend Brian Kennaway, and Graham Montgomery, who was holding, upside-down, a pile of six bowler hats, for those performing the remembrance ceremony needed to be bareheaded. Typically, despite the solemnity, I got an immediate smile and nod from Brian and Graham and the other three or four Orangemen I knew.

      Only a couple of dozen locals watched this small parade walking to the annual Reformation Sunday service at Brownlow House, the headquarters of the Royal Black Institution, who share the Victorian Gothic building with their landlord, Lurgan Orange District. It was being rebuilt, having been damaged the previous year by petrol bombs on the day before the Apprentice Boys’ march in Derry. Many of the treasures of the Royal Black Institution were destroyed or damaged; it is costing about £8 million of public money (from the fund for compensation for terrorist damage) to repair and refurbish the house. The band, the Craigavon True Blues, seemed incongruous: they were a typical ‘blood-and-thunder’ band, containing young men one would rather avoid in a dark alley who wore bright blue uniforms and played the hymns like a call to battle. It is hard to avoid mixed feelings about these bands: on the one hand the macho, aggressive aura is off-putting; on the other, they’re wonderful to walk along with. That is why the republican bands that have emerged in the past decade or so are mirror-images of them.

      So I walked along the pavement keeping pace with the band for the mile or so to Brownlow House. Here and there, a few residents came out of their houses and watched with the air of people pleased to have some diversion on a dull Sunday afternoon. We walked up the drive, someone opened the door and the members of the Orange Order went upstairs. The drummers wiped the perspiration from their faces and, along with СКАЧАТЬ