Introduction

The Orange Lodges, originally a powerful agency for the defence of loyalist and protestant interest in Ireland, have flourished as fraternal societies in the British Army in nearly every part of the English-speaking world. Although founded by Irish protestant peasants, they soon attracted sections of the upper and middle classes who, at time, found Orangemen useful politically, but embarrassing and difficult to control. This study, originally published in 1966, deals with the founding of the movement in County Armagh just prior to the rebellion of 1798, and traces its history through the first forty years of its existence.