TRANSPLANTED IRISH INSTITUTIONS - University of Canterbury

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Ritual was used to reinforce fraternalism. kinship and a sense of identity. The
members identified each other as brothers although they were biologically unrelated. This
sense of brotherhood was used to provide a solidarity in which to achieve various aims. Far
from being a one-time event in a member's life. the Orange Institution, like other fraternal
societies (notably the Masons) permeated their everyday life and annual events.
Fraternalism was evident through the Orangemen's shared initiation, and by shared
responsibilities in life via charitable works, and in important events such as meetings,
parades, marriages and funerals. Clawson used an example of a Catholic confraternity but
this can also illustrate Orange rituals. Clawson noted that both the mass and banquet
"served ... to bind members into a unitary whole, while the procession displayed their public
identity as a corporate body existing within a larger urban community. "6
This sense of
solidarity was also true of the funeral where all the members attended wearing their insignia
which illustrated that death was a part of the corporate responsibility of the fraternal
organization and not just the family or the church that the deceased belonged to.
The
"corporate funeral demonstrated and reiterated to the members of the community that they
were bound to one another 'until death do us part'."7 Clawson's use of the marriage vows
helps to show how strong the ties were for people who joined a fraternal organization.
Until the late nineteenth century, fraternalism was essentially a brotherhood which
was an association "between and among men. "8 Clawson suggests that "Fraternal orders not
only offered an alternative social space for the expression of male solidarity, but dignified
and idealized it by means of rituals that excluded women and celebrated the creation of
specifically male social bonds."9 Late in the nineteenth century women began to play a
more prominent role in society and this resulted in the accommodation of women in the
fraternal orders. The L.O.1. was no exception in the changes that occurred in fraternal
6Ibid .. p. 43.
7Ibid .. p. 43 .
8Ibid .. p. 45.
9Ibid .• p. 179.