Orangism and the U.U.P.

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Since the inception of the Ulster Unionist Party, there has been a strong influence of the Orange Order in the party. Clearly the Orange Order is a sectarian organisation and in the past has been responsible for enunciating a very skewed method of governance and economics in the North of Ireland in particular.

Orangism was reinvigorated by the Irish push for Home Rule in the 1880 following the Land war and the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, by W.E. Gladstone.

Given that this entity is specifically about resisting 'Home Rule', being an obstacle to change of the established order of Unionism and above all opposition of Catholicism, my real question is, should the Orange Order not be excluded from the Ulster Unionist Party?

What place has such a quasi-fascist entity in a party that proports itself to be the very pinnacle of righteous governance and moral fortitude in Northern Ireland?
How can the U.U.P.'s leader David Trimble accuse the Republic of Ireland where freedom of worship is gauranteed by the constitution of being mono-ethnic, mono-theist and so on, when Mr Trimble himself has failed to purge such a sectarian and malovalent entity from his body politic?

What's more, why should such a blatantly sectarian organisation, such as the Orange Order be allowed to exist in a supposedly modern and aspiring liberal state? Fascism is not tolerated, Neo-Nazism is not tolerated, Racism is not tolerated, so is it the case that the Orange Order and the sectarianism it represents is so pervailent in Northern Ireland, that this sectarian institution is above the precis of modern society, governing equality and fairness?

http://www.serve.com/pfc/orders/loyal.html

1886 The Orange Order mobilises in opposition to Gladstone's Home Rule Bill with parades throughout the North. In a letter Randolf Churchill incites Orangemen and Unionists to violence with the call "Ulster will fight (Home Rule), Ulster will be right." Rioting follows the defeat of the Bill in June and 12 July Orange parades lead predictably to disturbances that are "probably the worst outbreak of violence that century". By mid September some 50 people had lost their lives and thousands had been driven from their workplaces and homes (Curtis, 1995, p.142 ).

The growing political role of the Orange Order in the 1880s in co-ordinating the anti-Home Rule campaign had important implications for that most public manifestation of Orangeism, i.e. the parade. The middle classes and the gentry flocked back to the Loyal Orders having deserted them in the early decades of the century as disreputable "lawless banditti". Institutional links with the emerging Ulster Unionist Party were developed and the Orders became more centralised and focused political machines. Mass mobilisations were co-ordinated in pursuit of a clear goal ; the defeat of Home Rule which the Orders claimed equaled "Rome Rule". Annual skirmishes on the highways and byways of Ulster, though they still occurred, were no longer seen as appropriate to an organisation which had regained its respectability

The above passge is quoted from another thread on humanities.

I do not think David trimble, even with his legal training, is capable of understanding anything other than, the notion of not having a catholic about the place,his sectarianism is very thinly veiled at the best of times.
I think it was Bertie Ahern who commented at the time of the Good Friday negotiations that the Unionist were so unused to talking to opposing sides they did not know how to negotiate.

Trimble and most hard line unionists do not understand the meaning of sectarianism, yet (contradiction) know well how to impliment it.

There is a fog there through which the hypocrisy of his recent outbursts thrives.
It's ironic that here in ROI, most people nowadays don't give a hoot whether one is Catholic or Protestant.
mm

Bateman

The reason why he has not purged the Orange Order from his party is because he is a proudn Ulsterman, a proud Protestant, and and proud Orangeman. I think thats pretty obvious.
However, the more we harp on about the OO being fascist, loyalists will ridiculously point to SF as being the best example of fascism in Ireland. The order probably see themselves as being proud Prods, nothing more. At a ground level, Orangemen display a hatred of Catholics, and seek only to provoke confrontation, but I don't this is in Trimble's interests.
But like many things in NI, I think history will inevitably make the Order redundant at some stage. Its increasingly being rightly seen as an extreme lunatic fringe even of Unionist politics, and I don't think the Unionist movement can or want to sustain it for much longer. There will come a time when the Unionist movement will seek a cleaner look, and the Order will obviously not be part of this.