Wise men from the East, A History of Independent Orangeism in East Belfast




WISE MEN FROM THE EAST THE ORIGINS OF THE INDEPENDENT ORANGE ORDER IN EAST BELFAST

1. DISCOVERING THE INDEPENDENTS 1. 2. FOUNDATION OF THE INDEPENDENT LOYAL ORANGE INSTITUTION The Orange Order split in June 1903 over calls for greater democracy and transparency, the formation of a Protestant political party, and better leadership on faith, parades, education and workers rights.

The I.L.O.I. was formally constituted on 11 June 1903 at a mass public rally in what is now the Botantic Gardens. It’s leaders had been expelled from the Orange order over their support of a shipyard worker and popular preacher who had just been elected MP for South Belfast. This working class Protestant revolution had shaken the ruling classes to the core and his radical Orange manifesto drew over 8000 people to the meeting.

What started as a Belfast based movement soon spread to North Antrim and beyond. In less than two years the ILOI had 71 Lodges in Ireland with almost half concentrated in working class areas of Belfast. County Grand Lodges were formed in Belfast, Londonderry and Antrim, with outlying lodges stretching from Dublin to Liverpool. There a Birkenhead District of ten lodges captured the imagination of English Orangemen, as Sloan built a Protestant coalition across the UK. The Order even had a lodge in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA. Despite years of persecution and attack, personality clashes within its own leadership and a closing of Unionist ranks in the face of the Home Rule threat, the ILOI maintained its numbers. It’s decline can in no small part be attributed to the losses sustained in the First World War.

DONEC ID ELIT NON MI PORTA GRAVIDA AT EGET METUS.

1. 3. SPEAKERS / PRESENTERS Association a vehicle for evangelical working class Protestant opinion. A leading Orangeman and WM of his private lodge he was a voice for Orange democracy and the sanctions imposed on him after he won the South Belfast Parliamentary seat led to the formation of the ILOI.

THOMAS H SLOAN MP JP

Sloan was a shipyard worker, a ‘cementer’ whose faith and natural ordinary skills led him to become a street preacher often taking meetings during lunchtime in the shipyards. He was a leading figure in the Belfast Protestant

the country winning seats in North Antrim.

He was one of the first working class MPs at a time when there was no salary or expenses.

Aside from this achievement he went on to become one of the most active Parliamentarians of his day. He built an extensive evangelical Protestant network across the UK with the purpose of promoting an Independent Protectant Political Party. In his time in Parliament, he submitted the largest written petition on the issue of Convent Laundries, he was a founding member of the Ulster Unionist Council, and he organised and mobilised the working class vote in elections across

Carnduff epitomised the spirit of early Independent Orangeism, in Belfast with a mix of working class awareness, dedication to democracy and social justice and that unique independent spirit of thought and deed. Despite being opposed to the Unionist leadership he was ardently anti-Home Rule, joining the Young Citizens Volunteers since it was apolitical. The YCV applied for membership of the UVF and on the 17 May 1914 became a battalion of the Belfast Regiment.

THOMAS CARNDUFF

The'Shipyard Poet' of

Belfast, born 1886. A founder member of the Independent Orange Order, eventually becoming WM of Dr. Kane Memorial Lodge I.L.O.L. No.7.

He was mobilised on the evening of Friday 24 April 1914 for the Gunrunning and his memoirs provide a valuable source of information for this period as he enlisted in the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles seeing service at Ypres and Messines, not returning until 1919, where he returned and saw further service in the Ulster Special Constabulary, in the dark days of the 1920s against IRA insurgency and Southern Irish aggression.

The Great War Depression of 1930s and his own unemployment saw him put pen to paper to express the plight of the ordinary man. His poetry is collected as Songs from the Shipyard and other Poems (1924); and Song of an Out of Work (1932). He provided a voice in both poetry and prose for the suffering of the Protestant Working Class people.

2. EAST BELFAST LODGES LOCATIONS AND DETAILS OF THE ILOI IN EAST BELFAST BALLYMACARRETT PURPLE STAR ILOL 6 The present ILOL No. 6 is a continuation of a fine tradition of Independent Orangeism in Belfast which stretches back well over 110 years. Despite the ravages of two World Wars, the socio-economic consequences of the decline of Belfast’s industrial base, emigration and discrimination as well as the more recent Troubles, there is still an Independent Flag flying in the city.

LILY OF THE EAST ILOL 11

The lodges in the East met in the ILOI Hall in Dee Street. It had formerly been a Belfast Protestant Association Hall, and as leader Sloan saw the ILOI as very much a continuation of this work. The hall sat at the corner of Dee Street and Wye Street.

CREGAGH YOUNG MEN’S ILOL 66 This lodge was formed out of the many young men’s clubs which were run across the city such as the Boys Brigade or YMCA. They aimed to prove recreational activities and education to young working men, and as such the ethos of the ILOI fitted with theirs.

MOUNTPOTTINGER TEMPERANCE ILOL 76 This area is synonymous with the Pottinger family whose ancestors had welcomed King William to Belfast and a brother had been captain of the ship which brought him to Carrickfergus. It was also the Old Order Mountpottinger Temperance lodge which a young Rev. Ian Paisley left and was invited as a speaker to the ILOI Twelfth in the early 1960s.

BELMONT TEMPERANCE ILOL 37 In what was always a more affluent area, it was the temperance stance of the ILOI which attracted members and this lodge was formed in late 1910, early 1911 showing that the Order could attract members long after its initial burst onto the scene.

EAST BELFAST

ILOI ORANGE HALLS

NO. 3 DISTRICT

HQ. Great Victoria Street, Dee Street, East Belfast, Malvern Street, West Belfast, Charles Street South, South Belfast and later

NO 3 DISTRICT

Garnerville Road,

OUTLYING LODGES SAINTFIELD, BALLYCARRY,

Knocknagoney

GILFORD MARALIN

PROJECT FUNDED BY