Despite a fourth confrontation at Drumcree in as many years, the Orange Order is again insisting that sectarian tension and accompanying violence engendered by the marching season is a recent phenomenon. History, however, suggests otherwise.
In fact the recent pattern of rerouted marches, sectarian divisions and violent resistance to bans has been all too familiar.
In the two centuries since the Order's foundation. And, significantly, until this year at least, whenever the Orange Order has defied a government ban on marching it has ultimately triumphed. The stand-off at Drumcree is no isolated incident.
The Order was founded in 1795 in Armagh, after a sectarian confrontation known as the Battle of the Diamond, in which 30 Catholics were killed. The violence followed a period of deep Protestant insecurity at the gradual restoration of civil rights to Catholics and took place against a background of heightened sectarian animosity. From the outset, the Orange Order was an exclusively Protestant body, dedicated to sustaining the "glorious and immortal memory" of William of Orange who, in the 18th century had become established as a Protestant icon. As the 19th century progressed, the memory of the Boyne and its annual commemoration on July 12th became a key signifier of Protestant ascendancy. Though the first commemoration of the Boyne organised by the Orange Order took place in 1796, it was really from the 1890s, that it became the central anniversary in the Orange calendar.
As the Twelfth of July increasingly became an occasion of sectarian conflict, the British government and its representatives in Ireland tried to curb the worst excesses. In the 1820s an Unlawful Society Act was passed, aimed at limiting the activities of popular societies in Ireland. Within Ulster, however, it was largely ignored.
As a result, an Anti-Processions Act was passed in 1832, which succeeded in limiting the Twelfth of July parades. However, the order itself continued to flourish. In 1835, a British government inquiry reported that members of the Orange Lodge had successfully infiltrated the yeomanry and army and the Order's success was clearly being helped by the numbers of Protestant landlords, merchants and members of the judiciary among its ranks.
In 1845, the year the potato blight triggered the Great Famine, the Anti-Processions Act was removed, resulting in an immediate increase in Twelfth parades. Despite the backdrop of famine, the marches again became occasions for sectarian conflict. Four years later, this would have tragic consequences.
In 1848, a small and easily suppressed nationalist uprising provided the Order with an opportunity to portray itself as defenders of the British state. They called on "loyal Protestants" to arm themselves against the Catholic threat and the lodge in Castlewellan, Co Down, informed the British government that it had 80 "steady, able, determined men, ready and willing to take the field at any time to die, if need be, for their beloved queen and constitution".
The situation came to a head on July 12th, 1849, when the local Orange Order decided to march through an exclusively Catholic area at Dolly's Brae, near Castlewellan. The leaders of the Orange Order were asked by local magistrates to avoid this route, aware it would result in violence. The request was refused. The Grand Master of the Orange Lodge, Lord Roden (also a Justice of the Peace and MP at Westminster), provided the marchers with refreshments, including alcohol, and urged them to do their duty as loyal Protestant men. By the end of the day, in which they had defiantly marched through the prohibited area, 30 Catholics had been killed. Dolly's Brae would become absorbed into Protestant folklore as a further triumph over "Papism".
The fiasco at Dolly's Brae led to the passing of a further act banning processions in Ireland, in 1850. But in Liverpool, the following year, the largest ever July 12th march in England took place, with an estimated 3,000 participants. Despite attacks on local Catholics, calls to ban the march were denounced as an infringement on the civil liberties of loyal Protestant subjects, an argument which continues to have resonance today.
The provisions of the 1850 Act were strengthened by the Party Emblems Act of 1860, but although this theoretically made public commemorations more difficult to hold, in practice such restrictions were openly defied by the Orange Order. In 1867, when one William Johnston led Orangemen in a Twelfth of July March from Newtownards, he was arrested. But he emerged from his imprisonment as a hero and was subsequently, as MP for Belfast, responsible for getting the Processions Act repealed in 1872.
The growth of Irish nationalism in the final decades of the 19th century saw an even more militant form of unionism emerge and the playing of the "Orange card" would become a familiar threat. The Twelfth of July celebrations became a focal point of opposition to nationalist aspirations and a display of Protestant solidarity. In the 1880s, an important link was also established between the Orange Order and the newly established Unionist Party.
The physical appearance of the marches also began to change at this point with the introduction of the now familiar sashes, flute bands and Lambeg drums. The parades gained increased significance in 1921 following Partition. In 1925, it was decided that the Twelfth of July should be a bank holiday, demonstrating the Protestant sympathies of the new administration and the day was increasingly used by politicians as opportunities to emphasise the Protestant nature of the new state. In 1932, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, declared at the celebrations: "Ours is a Protestant government and I am an Orangeman."
The parades were now being publicly portrayed as expressions of the distinct Protestant culture, rather than sectarian displays but they still continued to create religious conflict. In 1935, alarmed by the growth in sectarian confrontations, the Northern Ireland government banned all parades during the summer. Following a determined show of strength by the Orange Order, the ban was soon lifted. The Twelfth of July parade took place but was accompanied by rioting that lasted for six weeks. Thirteen people died.
In 1952 the Stormont government again attempted to avoid the potential dangers of the Twelfth by forcing a rerouting away from Catholic areas. Again they had to back down in the face of resistance by the Order.
With the beginning of the Troubles, in 1969, the political atmosphere became even more highly charged and the route of the marches remained a major source of contention. Repeatedly, the Orange Order has defied or ignored attempts to reroute them.
Now, in 1998, the eyes of the world are focused on a small, remote village in Co Armagh as the question of the march again threatens stability. The Orange Order claims its "traditional" right to march from Drumcree church through an area now largely Catholic. The ban, they say, threatens civil and religious liberty. Those who recall Dolly's Brae and the catalogue of conflict that has surrounded the July 12th marches since their inception may wonder just how high civil and religious liberty has really been on their agenda.
Christine Kinealy is the author of A Death Dealing Famine, the Great Hunger in Ireland (Pluto Press, 1997); The Great Calamity: The Irish Famine, 1845-52 (Pluto Press, 1994) and a forthcoming book, A Disunited Kingdom? England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 1800-1945 (Cambridge University Press).