Orange Order's days are numbered

What a silly article. The Orange Order`s numbers are declining slowly more or less inline with declining church attendance of the main denominations like the church of ireland and the presbyterian church - instead the young folk join the marching bands instead of the lodges as they are more in tune with the drinking culture and night clubbing. Another silly statement is that the 12th of the July celebrations are about Protestant victory over Catholics when in fact it is about `Glorious Revolution` ushered in by the joint rule of William and Mary which saw the 1688 Bill of Rights and supremacy of Parliament over Monarchy as William ceded power to Parliament. Both William`s army and deposed Catholic King James of Englandarmy were mixed with Willimas elite Dutch guards being largely Catholic. The battle was in fact a European Battle with William of Orange being part of the League of Augsburg supported by the Pope who were against the despotic King Loui of France of who King James of England was a vassal. William of Orange was married on King James daughter and for the first time in history their was joint rule as William & Mary ascended to the throne jointly. The OO are nothing like the KKK - they have entirely black lodges in AFrica and a Mohawk lodge in Canada. They are the same as the Catholic only Ancient Order of Hibernians except one is Catholic and the other Protestant. THe Orange Order doesnt believe or teach anything that the Protestant churches do not teach. Now why the heck would Tourism Ireland and the Republic`s government be promoting and funding Orange events if they were akin to the KKK? Doh!

From EdmundBurke:That would include the Orange Order, which does not necessarily have to be a racist or provocative organization. Ever seen the OO in action Edmund? No, they don't have to be racist and sectarian and violent. Nonetheless, they certainly are all of that. If there were 1000 parades of the KKK in say, Connecticutt over a two month period, do you think the population there wouldn't be protesting? The OO or LOL are nothing more than dressed up Klan.

Hitler called it "the master race" how exceptional is that.

You've got the Orange Order in NI, and their descendants in the States form the intellectual backbone of the Tea Party - only over here they call it American Exceptionalism rather than Protestant Ascendacy. Either way, nothing but a bunch of eejits using history to mask their basic hatred, distrust and envy of others.

Maybe they should wear orange pointed hats.The LOL is a bigoted anti-catholic anti-nationalist organisation.A bunch of self serving racist who never accepted the GFA.

From reading the header, I thought McGoldrick was going to report on data showing a fall off of Orange Order membership. Alas, no such thing; the story was merely an excuse for Orange Order bashing, a tough theme to play to a largely Irish American readership. I would strongly suggest that my fellow Irish Americans reach out to their nearest Irish consul general and find out what the Irish government's current attitude is toward the Orange Order and Protestant NI in general. I think you would be surprised to find that there is a concerted attempt by the Irish establishment to make the Good Friday Peace regime work in part by showing consideration for the Protestant culture in NI. That would include the Orange Order, which does not necessarily have to be a racist or provocative organization. (Point well taken by commenter that Orange marchers themselves rarely instigate any violence.)

Just to even out the bias from McGoldrick just a wee bit... There are well over 2000 orange marches throughout the year, only a tiny handful of these marches are a point of contention, mainly the one past Ardoyne. This parade does not march through the heart of a republican area... on July 12th it travels down the main road on it's journey from the Orange hall (itself in a protestant area north of the city)to the city centre. At Ardoyne it passes store fronts on the mainly republican side and on the other side is housing of mixed religion taking in the streets of Somerdale, Mountainview & Twadell. It takes less than two minutes to pass this distance on foot. The bands play no music at this point, nor are their supporters allowed to walk past Ardoyne. The parade is not detoured to specifically walk past a nationalist area. The area used to be traditionally a protestant area when this parade first took place. Re-routing this parade isn't really an option as there is no way for the parade to get from A to B without passing a nationalist area, this happens to be the least contentious route possible. Now i would argree that it would be in the interest of the country as a whole if this parade never happened. Now also bear in mind that it is not the orangemen who carry out the violence at this location every year, it is republican youths, and it is organized to happen every time by dissident republicans. Simultaneous riots happen in other republican areas where there is no parades at all. This is an effort to use violence to have this parade stopped. The Orangemen's opinion is that they wont let this threat of violence make them stop the parade. Almost all Orange parades are in protestant or neutral areas. It's usually only this handful where trouble flairs and I agree that urgent talks between the OO & residents to see how we can avoid this mess in the future.

I am amazed how people fill the void in their lives with this antiquated nonsense. Worse yet, death and severe injury still ensues from this nonsense. It is also true that the economic minority will soon outnumber the Orange Order types. What will they all do then,fight until the last person standing?

Spare me the victim routine.... unless its my victims lol Realist.

Yes REALIST, it DOES upset me and always will, never moreso than when I go up to visit my family and relations graves, I was not on about last weeks trouble, who started that?? How dare you say " spare us the victim routine " realist you are braindead if you think there were no victims. you are one of the many who do not like to hear the truth and say bugger you jack I'm all right....just as they do not like to hear..."It was not a Famine for the Irish Catholics, it was a Holocaust" get this, the RUC killed well before the IRA stepped in, why were the soldiers brought in, welcomed by the catholic community, and then hated. " Come live it to know it "

Hi Ellen, "irredenta: a territory historically or ethnically related to one political unit but under the political control of another." Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. I've always seen it used to mean refusing to accept defeat.

mamaginnty: "I am going to rest now this day as it hurts so much to remember it all"....lol. Really? All of 10 minutes? Spare us the victim routine. Explain the riots in the Bogside, Ardmore, and Gobnascale areas of Londonderry then. How many Orange marches passed through there?

Johnymac60: "As for the RUC. The IRA did not prevent Catholics from joining at all. The RUC themselves, shooting Catholics in the street sort of made Catholics leery of them"? Well, let's examine the facts shall we? During the 'Troubles' the RUC killed 44 Roman Catholics, by way of comparison, the IRA killed 343. In fact the only two PSNI officers murdered (by the 'continuity' IRA) were both Roman Catholics.

What are "irredentist" forces?

I'm surprised any of those marchers even know who "King Billy" was.