Orangemen


Orangemen,

members of the Loyal Orange Institution, familiarly called the Orange Order, a Protestant Irish society founded and flourishing mainly in Ulster. It was established (1795) to maintain the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland in the face of the rising agitation for Catholic EmancipationCatholic Emancipation,
term applied to the process by which Roman Catholics in the British Isles were relieved in the late 18th and early 19th cent. of civil disabilities.
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. Its name is taken from the family name of King William III of England, who defeated King James II in the battle of the BoyneBoyne,
river, c.70 mi (110 km) long, rising in the Bog of Allen, Co. Kildare, E Republic of Ireland, and flowing NE through Co. Meath, past Trim, to the Irish Sea near Drogheda. Salmon is caught in the river.
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 in 1690. July 12, the anniversary of this victory, is the principal holiday of the order, on which the members wear orange-colored flowers and orange sashes and march in parades; parades passing through Catholic sections of Northern Irish cities have been a source of interreligious friction. Branches of the society have been formed in many parts of the English-speaking world.