TRANSPLANTED IRISH INSTITUTIONS - University of Canterbury

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Even though the Peep O'Day Boys were victorious, there was some alarm among
the Protestant peasantry at the mobilization of the Defenders at the Battle of the Diamond.
After meetings between different Protestant factions, the Loyal Orange Institution was
formed. James Sloan, an innkeeper at Loughgall, County Armagh became the titular head
of this fledgling movement. The Orange Institution that was formed was in reaction to the
Defenders, and like the Defenders they adopted secret initiations and oaths more akin to
Freemasonry.
The comparison with Freemasonry, especially in the early years was an attempt to
create respectability as many of the early Orangemen were members of Masonic lodges. 17
The Masons and the Orange Institution did have similarities but there were also notable
differences. The word 'lodge', masonic titles and practices from Freemasonry were adopted
by the Orange Institution. Catholics were excluded from both institutions but this was
where the similarities ended. Freemasons existed for themselves while Orangemen tried to
maintain the 'Protestant Ascendancy' as established by William Ill's victory at the Battle of
the Boyne. Another notable difference was the aristocratic origins of Freemasonry against
what was seen as the Protestant peasantry origins of Orangeism. 18 Yet according to Terence
De Vere White "whenever Orange activities came in for criticism in the nineteenth centuryas
they often did- a stock excuse was that the Order was as respectable as the Freemasons.
Nobody ever questioned the respectability of the latter." 19
In the same manner as the Freemason the Orangeman had to declare oaths. The
original oath of these early Orangemen was "I, .. . do solemnly swear that I will, to the utmost
of my power, support and defend the king and his heirs as long as he or they support the
Protestant ascendancy. "20 This conditional oath took many forms in the following years
but it always maintained that Orangeism would support the monarchy as long as it remained
17Hereward Senior, 'The Early Orange Order 1795-1870', in T. Desmond Williams (ed.), Secret Societies
in Ireland, Dublin, New York, Gill & Macmillan Barnes & Noble Books, 1973, p. 37.
I ~erence de Vere White, 'The Freemasons', in Desmond Williams Secret Societies in Ireland, p. 52.
19fbid., p. 53.
200p. cit., Senior, Orangeism in Ireland, p. 2 1.