William Johnston, Populism and Authority in Ulster Protestant Politics

William Johnston of Ballykilbeg occupies an authoritative place in Ulster Protestant memory. A prominent campaigner and later an MP, Johnston is credited by politicians and historians alike with almost single-handedly bringing about the repeal of the Party Processions Act, which heavily restricted the right to hold public parades in Ulster in 1872. This chapter reconsiders that interpretation using Johnston’s personal papers, parliamentary records and those of Orange Order lodges, as well as contemporary newspapers. By reassessing the level of political authority Johnston was able to wield, and in particular the effectiveness with which he did so, it is possible to argue that there were several hitherto unacknowledged limitations to his position and achievements. Instead, Johnston’s campaign was in many ways characterised by caution and luck, with authority vested primarily in ideas and symbols. That his reputation has not only survived but prospered is indicative of the continued political controversy surrounding Orange marches.

Ogle Gowan and Orangeism in Upper Canada

This chapter examines the early career of Ogle R. Gowan, the founder of the official Orange Order in Canada and his quest for respectability in political life and within the colonial establishment. Gowan introduced a more belligerent construction of Irish loyalist manliness than had existed prior to his arrival in Upper Canada. His public representation of Irishness centred on defending Protestantism, the fraternalism of the Orange lodge, and extreme loyalty to the Crown. The chapter traces his path from Co. Wexford to Upper Canada, and how he presented Orangeism as a vital transatlantic link between Ireland and the Canadas. The chapter also investigates how Gowan’s wife, Frances, was involved with his first cousin, James R. Gowan, and the implications which that close relationship had on James’ decision to abandon Orangeism in favour of a successful public career that his cousin Ogle was never able to attain.

The Use of Visibility in Contentious Events in Northern Ireland

Territorial space in Northern Ireland is often associated with certain communal and political identities. This is vividly demonstrated by traditional parades in local areas. Some parades become contentious because they pass through localities associated with very different communities. Often, contentious parades are met with protests, which can become violent. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the contentious Protestant Orange Order parade through Ardoyne in North Belfast, we interpret contentious events not just in the usual terms of territorial struggles but as a quest for visibility. A focus on visibility as a field of social action, through which territories are established and contested, illuminates better the social relationships at work and the effects of their contestation at their nexus.

Reading the riot commission: Belfast, 1857

The year 1857 saw the first of the great riot commissions which provided much source material for Belfast history. It should be read as a continuation of the street conflict of that summer. Careful reading shows the skill with which the weak Catholic/Liberal alliance of the city managed the flow of witnesses and the naiveté of the Orange/Protestant lawyers. The Catholic/Liberal side ‘won’ the inquiry, achieving their aim of convincing the Dublin government that the local police force was ineffective if not sectarian and that Orange Order culture and evangelical street preaching was responsible for the disorder. Practical outcomes were limited. Resources were limited due to demands in other parts of Ireland and the process of taking first-class troops from Ireland to deal with the Indian mutiny. Considered in light of theories of ‘civil society’, the court was a means of countering the imperfections of representative government. Considered in the context of Ireland as a whole, events demonstrated the weakness of the Dublin authorities, their ignorance of Belfast and the importance of the resident magistrate. Much was concealed from the inquiry. The following months revealed evidence of an active Ribbon-style organisation, and the animosity of the local police and the constabulary. Attention to working class sectarianism diverted attention from elite failure to manage the class relationships of a fractured civil society.

Identity on Parade in Northern Ireland

This chapter introduces the history and political context of loyalist parades in Northern Ireland. It traces how parades have changed over the past two centuries in response to shifting political conditions. The chapter then shows how parades influence and are influenced by politics in the post–Good Friday/Belfast Agreement era. In the discussion of contemporary parading, the chapter presents data on the number of parades, paraders, and spectators, which demonstrate the prominence of the movement in Protestant society. It also describes the major parading organizations, including the Orange Order, the other loyal orders, and marching bands, and explains the main sources of disputes between Protestants and Catholics over parades.

Liberal and Secular or Protestant and Orange?

This chapter examines the importance of the Protestant Faith and Church and of the Orange Order to UUP members. Whilst overwhelmingly Protestant, the UUP has always rejected the overtly fundamentalist, Free Presbyterian brand with which the DUP was associated for many years. The chapter analyses whether the Church of Ireland or Presbyterian Church provide most UUP members. The chapter then discusses the religiously conservative attitudes of members, assessing the extent of support for, or opposition to, the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion, currently still prohibited (other than in exceptional cases for abortion) in Northern Ireland. The extent to which members offer support for ‘mixed’ (Protestant–Catholic) marriages and for unfettered marching rights for the Orange Order, will also be examined. Are older members, politically socialized in an era of fraternal Orange–UUP relations, still more sympathetic to the Orange Order? The survey data allow direct comparisons with the DUP.

Forgetful Remembrance

What happens when a society attempts to obscure inconvenient episodes in its past? In 1798, Ulster Protestants—in particular Presbyterians—participated alongside Catholics in the failed republican rebellion of the United Irishmen. In subsequent years, communities in counties Antrim and Down that had been heavily involved in the insurrection reconciled with the newly formed United Kingdom and identified with unionism. As Protestant loyalists closed ranks in face of resurgent Catholic nationalism, with many joining the Orange Order, Presbyterians had a vested interest to consign their rebel past to oblivion. Uncovering a vernacular historiography, to be found in oral traditions and often-unnoticed local writings, Guy Beiner shows that recollections of the rebellion persisted under a public facade of forgetting. Beneath a culture of silencing and reticence, he finds muted traditions of forgetful remembrance. Beiner follows the dynamics of social forgetting for over two centuries, starting with anxieties of being forgotten that preceded the insurrection. He reveals how bitter memories of repression prevented a policy of amnesty from facilitating amnesia. Clandestine traditions of defiant remembrance were regenerated and transmitted over several generations, yet when commemoration emerged into the open, it was met with violent responses. Prohibitions on public remembrance of 1798 seemed to come to an end by the bicentennial year of 1998, with the signing of the peace agreement in Northern Ireland, however the ambiguity of memory continues into the current post-conflict era. Comparative references demonstrate the wider relevance of the historical study of social forgetting.