The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions

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

The first, intimate portrait of the Orange Order.If there is any more controversial body of men (and, with the exception of Ruth Dudley Edwards, who has been admitted to an honorary position in her very own lodge, they are all men) in the British Isles, it is hard to think who they might be. To most outsiders, grown men parading in bowler hats, white gloves, coloured sashes or collarettes, rolled umbrellas and banners showing scenes from the Old Testament or from a war that ended three centuries ago, are anachronistic, silly and provocative; to their enemies they are triumphalist bigots; to most of their members, the lodges’ parades are a commemoration of the courage of their forefathers, a proud declaration of their belief in civil and religious freedom, a demonstration of their Britishness, a chance to catch up with old friends and a jolly day out.Ruth Dudley Edwards is an unlikely Joan of Arc for the Orangemen, but that she is; a trusted and liked sympathizer, a woman, a Catholic from southern Ireland; one who sees them as possibly rather bumptious and certainly their own worst enemy, endlessly outpaced by the nimble Republicans in terms of PR (which the Orangemen scorn to meddle with). She has written a fond but not uncritical, indeed rather exasperated, portrait of this tribe, with lashings of insider detail and revelation which no one else could hope to obtain.

The Faithful Tribe

An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions

RUTH DUDLEY EDWARDS

Dedication (#ulink_0e4245b8-1cbb-5e72-84c2-6cdd38885470)

To all my friends in the loyal institutions and especially to Henry (who dragged me into this in the first place), Lorraine, Erin and Thomas, my Northern Ireland family, who made researching this book such a joy.

Contents

Cover (#u4768a8c2-37a2-559c-80fd-e89e506d9dc0)

Title Page (#u4e51cc88-d73c-534f-abed-f902222e13b8)

Dedication (#u19984eb0-cb73-5853-b31f-ab2445436710)

List of Illustrations (#u6a768760-a0cd-5f99-a89b-4fdd59e37d5f)

Introduction (#u1a1b8216-75a7-5898-bdee-a341782fd65a)

1. Eight Parades, a Cancellation and Some Anthropological Notes from the War-zone (#u9383f5ce-2d93-5dce-a743-66b17e9ecb3b)

2. What Members of the Irish Loyal Institutions Do (#u8cee9e7b-276a-5049-87ce-36d75996df6e)

3. Onlookers, Participants and Opponents: the Twelfth (#u03fcfb84-2524-5455-9128-83ccfc68b71d)

4. The Family Abroad (#u15ca79a6-856d-5bc0-bfea-7dd703157051)

5. The Wars of Religion Begin (#litres_trial_promo)

6. ‘Oranje boven!’ (#litres_trial_promo)

7. ‘The Orange Quadrilateral’ (#litres_trial_promo)

8. ‘Conceived and brought forth by humble men’ (#litres_trial_promo)

9. A Century in the Life of a Lodge (#litres_trial_promo)

10. Villains and Heroes (#litres_trial_promo)

11. Ourselves Alone (#litres_trial_promo)

12. The Rise of the Residents’ Groups (#litres_trial_promo)

13. The Background to Drumcree (#litres_trial_promo)

14. Drumcree One, 9–11 July 1995 (#litres_trial_promo)

15. The Road to Drumcree Two (#litres_trial_promo)

16. The Drumcree Disaster, 7–11 July 1996 (#litres_trial_promo)

17. The Road to Drumcree Three: William Bingham’s Story (#litres_trial_promo)

18. Drumcree Three: The Rest of the Story (#litres_trial_promo)

19. Drumcree Four, 5 July 1998–? (#litres_trial_promo)

Afterword (#litres_trial_promo)

Appendix: Draft Speech for the Prime Minister (#litres_trial_promo)

Select Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

List of Illustrations (#ulink_4c776253-9bb9-56ab-9352-953d1a4c42fd)

1. (#litres_trial_promo) Royal Black Preceptory No 800, Clogher, County Tyrone, circa 1930.

2. (#litres_trial_promo) Tom Reid (as baby) at his first Twelfth, Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, 1934.

3. (#litres_trial_promo) Banter at ‘The Field’, Ballymoney, County Antrim, August 1989. (JFA Studio)

4. (#litres_trial_promo) The annual re-enactment of the Battle of the Boyne at Scarva, County Down. (Bobbie Hanvey)

5. (#litres_trial_promo) Making Lambeg drums in Belfast. (JFA Studio)

6. (#litres_trial_promo) Three generations of the Brownlees family, Ballymena, County Antrim. (Bobbie Hanvey)

7. (#litres_trial_promo) ‘If Northern Ireland Was Really “British”…’ (Martyn Turner/Irish Times)

8. (#litres_trial_promo) Henry, Erin and Thomas Reid outside the Orange Hall in Glenageeragh, County Tyrone, 1995.

9. (#litres_trial_promo) Gerard Rice of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community. (MSI)

10. (#litres_trial_promo) Donncha MacNiallis of the Bogside Residents’ Group. (Belfast Telegraph)