The Orange Order

In late nineteenth-century Toronto, municipal politics were so dominated by the Irish Protestants of the Orange Order that the city was known as the “Belfast of Canada.” For almost a century, virtually every mayor of Toronto was an Orangeman and the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne was a civic holiday. Toronto, the Belfast of Canada explores the intolerant origins of today’s cosmopolitan city. Using lodge membership lists, census data, and municipal records, William J. Smyth details the Orange Order’s role in creating Toronto’s municipal culture of militant Protestantism, loyalism, and monarchism. One of Canada’s foremost experts on the Orange Order, Smyth analyses the Orange Order’s influence between 1850 and 1950, the city’s frequent public displays of sectarian tensions, and its occasional bouts of rioting and mayhem.

The first systematic social history of the Orange Order. Based on unprecedented access to the Order's archives, the book charts the Order's path from the peak of its influence, in the early 1960s, to its present crisis, and argues that the traditional Unionism of the past is giving way to a more militant form which is winning the hearts of the younger generation.

In this final book of the Legends trilogy Hoole reclaims the thrown of his father and goes on to wage a war against the forces of chaos, greed and oppression led by the powerful warlord-tyrants. Grank, the first collier, uses his skills with fire and metals to forge weapons for battle. With great trepidation Hoole uses the power of the Ember in the final, decisive battle and wins. At the dawn of a new ear of peace, Hoole searches for the ideal place to establish not a kingdom but an order of free owls and finds the Great Tree. (continued) There he rejects the absolute power his followers want to invest in him and establishes instead the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, an order of noble owls of all kinds based on learning, equality and nobility of thought and deed. Before he dies he takes the Ember back to the Sacred Volcanoes and hides it, knowing that if it falls into the wrong talons its powers would endanger the Great Tree and the principles it is founded on. He returns to the Tree and dies ending a time of magic and legend but leaving an order of owls noble in thought and deed, dedicated to learning and equality among all owls.

Born out of bloodshed, sustained by sectarianism and shrouded in secrecy, the Orange Order is one of the most abiding and controversial religion-based organisations in Europe, if not the world. A Catholic cannot join: its doors are open only to those who profess Protestantism. BBC journalist Mervyn Jess, who has written extensively on Orange issues, strips away the mystery and myths of the Order and traces its origins and defining moments spanning three turbulent centuries. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in finding out what "the Orange" is all about.

This book locates Canadian Orangeism in its international context, assesses the activities of the Order in Toronto, the 'Belfast of North America', analyzes the ambivalent relationship of Canadian Orangeism to the crown, discusses Orange influences on Canadian Confederation, and examines the reasons for the Order's decline in the second half of the 20th century. Contents: Don M. MacRaild (UU), "The associationalism of the Orange diaspora;" Eric Kaufmann (U London), "Orange Order in Ontario, Newfoundland, Scotland and N. Ireland;" Brian Clarke (U Toronto), "Parades and public life in Victorian Toronto;" William Jenkins (York U), "Loyal Orange lodges in early 20th-cent. Toronto;" Ian Radforth (U Toronto), "Orangemen and the crown;" David A. Wilson (U Toronto), "Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Orangeism and the new nationality;" John Edward FitzGerald (Memorial U Newfoundland), "The Orange Order and Newfoundland's confederation with Canada, 1948- 9;" Cecil J. Houston (U Windsor) & William J. Smyth (NUIM), "Decline of the Orange Order in Canada, 1905- 2005;" Mark G. McGowan (U Toronto), "Postscript."

Formed in 1795, the Orange Order had grown into a formidable popular organisation in its first forty years of existence. However, against a background of major social, political and economic change, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland made the forced decision to disband the Order in 1836 in the face of mounting government pressure. In spite of this, the extremely widespread Protestant association could not simply disappear and continued to thrive at local level. By 1845 it had been officially revived amidst fears of renewed Catholic agitation. Within the next four years the Order eventually returned to its previous popular standing. This journey was far from straightforward and many obstacles needed negotiation. This book will explore many factors such as the failed Young Ireland Rebellion of 1848 and the notorious and fatal clash with Catholics at Dolly's Brae in 1849, and trace the uneven and difficult path undertaken by Orangemen through this pivotal time in Irish history.

Provides a transnational account of women's involvement in conservative political activism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Britain and Canada