‘No surrender’ the catch-cry as loyalists celebrate 232nd anniversary of Battle of the Boyne
Belfast, 13 July 1922 – The 232nd anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne was enthusiastically celebrated by unionists across Northern Ireland yesterday. As well as Belfast, rallies of Orangemen took place in Lisburn, Lurgan, Newcastle, Ballywalter, Portadown, Ballymena, Coleraine and Gilford.
On many of the platforms, the common cry of the day was ‘No surrender’, a message which was given urgency by ongoing security concerns along the border and by what the Belfast Newsletter has described as the ‘campaign of murder and incendiarism which has been waged against the loyalists of Belfast and elsewhere.’
The Newsletter added that the Orange Order has always been the ‘vanguard of Ulster’s resistance to separation from the empire, and the disloyal factions throughout Ireland recognise that it is the most powerful organisation with which they have to contend.’
‘They have spared no efforts to vilify and bring discredit on the order in the eyes of the world. By deliberate falsehood, and the distortion of facts, they have endeavoured to make it appear that the Orangemen were responsible for many of the atrocities and outrages which have stained the fair name of the northern capital in recent times.’
King William III at the Battle of the Boyne (Image: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-03432)
The Newletter’s defiant tone reflected the trenchant rhetoric of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig. Despite suffering from a cold, he delivered a short speech in which he drew a link from the Ulster men and women who had come together as a volunteer force in 1912, to the heroics of the 36th Ulster Division during the war – ‘there was no finer division’ – to the current ‘Specials’, whom he lauded as saviours of Ulster.
All of these groups, he observed, had sprung from the loyal Orange Order.
The huge size of demonstrations in many parts of the six counties underlined the strength of the Orange Order. The order’s growth has been shown in recent years in the founding of new lodges, the construction of new halls and the enlargement of others. Orangeism is also reported to be spreading amongst Ulster Protestant women with ‘numerous ladies’ lodges’ now up and running.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
