L'Ordre d'Orange va ser fundada pels protestants de l'Ulster al Comtat d'Armagh el 1795, durant un període de període de conflicte sectari protestant-catòlic, com a fraternitat que va jurar mantenir l'Ascendència protestant a Irlanda. La Gran Lògia d'Orange d'Irlanda es va establir l'any 1798. El seu nom és un homenatge al rei protestant d'origen holandès William of Orange, que va derrotar al rei catòlic Jaume II a la Guerra Guillemita d'Irlanda (1689 – 1691). L'Ordre és més coneguda per les seves marxes anuals, la més gran de les quals se celebren el 12 de juliol o al voltant del 12 de juliol, un dia festiu a Irlanda del Nord. Les desfilades són parts important del quefer de l'Orde d'Orange, la desfilada més important i on acostumen a haver més aldarulls.
L'Ordre d'Orange és una organització conservadora, unionista britànica[4][5] i lleial de l'Ulster.[6][7] Així, tradicionalment s'ha oposat al nacionalisme irlandès/republicanisme i ha fet campanya contra la independència escocesa.[8] L'Orde es considera que defensa les llibertats civils i religioses protestants, mentre que els crítics l'acusen de sectària,[9] triomfalista[10][11][12][13] i supremacista.[13][14][15][16] No accepta com a membres no protestants tret que s'aguin convertit i s'adhereixin als seus principis, ni accepta protestants casats amb no protestants.[17][18][19] Les marxes taronges pels barris catòlics són controvertides i sovint han provocat violència,[20][21] com el conflicte de Drumcree.
↑Page, Chris. «Orange Order on the equator: Keeping the faith in Ghana» (en anglès). BBC, 30-08-2015. Arxivat de l'original el 19 July 2021. [Consulta: 16 maig 2017]. «It is perhaps unsurprising that the order has outposts in countries like Australia and Canada where ex-pats from Northern Ireland have emigrated. But that is not how the order took root in the West African countries Ghana and Togo. The first Orange lodge in what is now Ghana was founded in 1918.»
↑Benedetto, Robert; McKim, Donald K. Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches. Scarecrow Press, 6 October 2009, p. 353. ISBN 978-0-8108-7023-9. «Most of the organization's lodges are located in [Northern] Ireland, England, and Scotland, although others can be found throughout the British Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. The lodges of every country are independent, but the Orange Order meets in a triennial world council.»
↑«Welcome to the Grand Orange Lodge». Orange Order. Arxivat de l'original el 6 October 2014. [Consulta: 15 maig 2013]. «We are a Protestant fraternity with members throughout the world. Autonomous Grand Lodges are found in Scotland, England, the United States of America, West Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.»
↑Govan, D.H. «Towards a religious understanding of the Orange Order: Belfast 1910 to 1914». Irish Studies Review, vol. 29, 4, 2021, pàg. 501–514. DOI: 10.1080/09670882.2021.1976445. «To most outsiders, it is a sectarian remnant and an obdurate barricade to progress, but for its members and supporters, the Order exists to defend Protestantism and civil and religious liberty across the globe. Certainly, the Order describes itself as a religious brotherhood, and whatever else it might be – imperialist, violent, gauche – it is ultimately sectarian.»
↑ «Orangemen take part in Twelfth of July parades». BBC News, 12-07-2010. «Some marches have been a source of tension between nationalists who see the parades as triumphalist and intimidating, and Orangemen who believe it is their right to walk on public roads.»
↑ «Protestant fraternity returns to spiritual home». Reuters, 30-05-2009. «The Orange Order's parades, with their distinctive soundtrack of thunderous drums and pipes, are seen by some Catholics in Northern Ireland as a triumphalist display.»
↑«Ormeau Road frustration». An Phoblacht, 27-04-2000. Arxivat de l'original el 28 January 2012. [Consulta: 25 agost 2010]. «The overwhelming majority of nationalists view Orange parades as triumphalist coat trailing exercises.»
↑ 13,013,1«Kinder, gentler or same old Orange?». Irish Central, 23-07-2009. Arxivat de l'original el 14 November 2011. [Consulta: 25 agost 2010]. «The annual Orange marches have passed relatively peacefully in Northern Ireland this year, and it seems a good faith effort is underway to try and reorient the day from one of triumphalism to one of community outreach and a potential tourist attraction ... The 12th may well have been a celebration of a long-ago battle at the Boyne in 1690, but it came to symbolize for generations of Catholics the "croppie lie down" mentality on the Orange side. The thunderous beat of the huge drums was just a small way of instilling fear into the Nationalist communities, while the insistence on marching wherever they liked through Nationalist neighbourhoods was also a statement of supremacy and contempt for the feelings of the other community.»
↑Connolly, Sean J. Divided kingdom: Ireland, 1630–1800. Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 432. «Modern Irish republicans may look back to the United Irishmen as the founders of their tradition. But the one present-day organisation that can trace an unbroken descent from the 1790s is the Protestant supremacist Orange Order.»
↑Roe, Paul. Ethnic violence and the societal security dilemma. Routledge, 2005, p. 62. «Ignatieff explains how the victory of William of Orange over Catholic King James 'became a founding myth of ethnic superiority ... The Ulstermen's reward, as they saw it, was permanent ascendancy over the Catholic Irish'. Thus, Orange Order marches have come to symbolise the supremacy of Protestantism over Catholicism in Northern Ireland.»
↑Wilson, Ron. «Is it a religious war?». A: A flower grows in Ireland. University Press of Mississippi, 1976, p. 127. «At the close of the eighteenth century, Protestants, again feeling the threat of the Catholic majority, began forming secret societies which coalesced into the Orange Order. Its main purpose has always been to maintain Protestant supremacy»
↑"... No catholic and no-one whose close relatives are catholic may be a member." Northern Ireland The Orange State, Michael Farrell
↑McGarry, John; O'Leary, Brendan. Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. Blackwell Publishers, 1995, p. 180. ISBN 978-0-631-18349-5.
↑Lynch, Paul. «Perspective – The Orange Marches». Australian Broadcasting Commission, 31-10-2005. Arxivat de l'original el 21 September 2011. [Consulta: 28 maig 2013].
↑Reardon, Lawrence C. The Catholic Church and the Nation-State: Comparative Perspectives. Georgetown University Press, 2006, p. 126. ISBN 1589017242. «The 'Marching Days' beginning on July 12 each year ... are considered highlights of the Protestant calendar. A few of theses marches, wind their way past some Catholic enclaves, a move considered provocative by some nationalists, that ensures resistance, trouble and, occasionally, violence.»