ORANGE CELEBRATIONS

 

(The painting depicts King William's arrival in Ireland - A figure believed to be Pope Innocent XI appears to bless William, top left)

Every year the Battle of the Boyne is celebrated in Ireland for about four months with thousands of marches  and  for one night with high bonfires. This seventeenth  century battle fought in Ireland by two kings, William of Orange, a Dutchman  and James an Englishman is celebrated - with a lot less intensity - in other countries as well, Canada, Australia for instance.  In Ireland the celebrators  are told  it was a fight between  two armies, Catholic against  Protestant, or Irish against British, a fight  between those who loved liberty and law and  those who hated both.

Some Irish people  wonder every now and then if  this monumental festival, four months of marching, thousands of processions, could  ever become a Festival shared by all Irish citizens.  After all, didn't Guy Fawkes celebrations  in England  become, more or less, festivals for, more or less, everyone, even though the annual incendiaries in parts of England still burn effigies of people whose  religion is different from theirs.   It seems lots of people join in the Guy Fawkes festivities because they have forgotten what Guy Fawkes Day is really about.

Is it possible that the Orange festival in Ireland could become a festival for everyone  when people remember what it is all about?

There are two pictures in Belfast that may help that to happen. One is at Sandy Row, another is in Stormont .

The Sandy Row one is a great mural  showing King William in all his splendour;  at the bottom of the picture is a list of the  nationalities of  people who helped King William become so splendid. The picture in Stormont is of King William but includes also a prominent person who helped William's army with men, music and wages and after the battle of the Boyne got people in Rome to sing the most vigorous of Roman Catholic hymns of thanksgiving to God, the Te Deum, for William's  victory.
Historians tell us that :

Pope Innocent the Eleventh blessed and  partly financed  William's troops and even added his own small army to fight alongside King William's at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

William's forces (30% Catholic) were led into battle by a papal brass band; and when news of the Boyne victory reached the Pope he celebrated  with triumphant religious song.

It was King James, not King William, who gave people their religious freedom :  but unfortunately James'  1689 decree  in favour of  religious liberty was replaced by William's  1691 Test Act , which allowed  only Church of England / Church of Ireland members to  vote or hold public office . In towns such as Belfast, Presbyterians, although they formed almost the entire citizen body, could not serve on the Corporation, or even have their marriages solemnised by Presbyterian ministers (so  in the eyes of William's law not only were they unmarried but they were declared to be "living  in sin"); they were fined or jailed for not attending Church of Ireland services, for teaching their religion etc. So 30,000 of them eventually emigrated to America - our loss, the Americans' gain - and thus  we find eleven or so American presidents descended from Ulster Protestant stock  - and  Davie Crockett as well.  

For the opening of the magnificent Stormont building  in 1932 the N.Ireland government sent to Holland for a portrait of William of Orange to put  in it. What they bought was an authentic contemporary portrait of William. Just before the opening ceremony by the Prince of Wales, it was noticed  that in the corner of the picture  was the Pope, his hand upraised  blessing William and his troops.  

Sadly, some time later  a Glasgow woman  visiting Stormont  tried too late to save their embarrassment  by chopping the Pope out of the picture with a knife.

So if people in England can all join in on Guy Fawkes Day by forgetting what that celebration is really about, may we ever see the day when everyone in Ireland will join in the Orange celebrations -  when we  remember what the Battle  of the Boyne was really about ?