Country House Collections At Slane Castle 13th October 2015 : You can Download a PDF Version from the Bottom Menu Down Arrow Icon

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For Loyal Orange Lodge No. 579, Portstewart
Lighthouse, early 19th century, with arched hood, planked back
and box seat, decorated with King William, below a royal coat of
arms and with various symbols attached to the order.
20cm high x 66cm wide x 46cm deep
The Orange Order celebrates the Protestant
Ascendancy, in that civil liberties and religious
freedom were maintained by the victories of King William of
Orange, that would surely have been
extinguished if the Jacobites and the autocratic
monarchical system of France had prevailed.
However, after the trouncing of the Catholic Defenders at the
Diamond in Armagh in 1796, the Loyal Orange Institution was
founded on overtly sectarian lines. Based on the Masonic Order
but eschewing that organisation’s non-political constitution, it
became hopelessly partisan. In spite of being actively disliked
by the Westminster Government and indeed the landed classes,
the Orange Order’s gritty determination to exclude Catholics,
oppose Home Rule, and create a Protestant Parliament for a
Protestant people, largely accounts for the present configura-
tion of the island of Ireland.
Today the Orange Order is edging towards a role as an Irish
cultural institution which its verve, regalia and music entitles it
to be, especially as it is represented as to one third of a national
flag.
This chair, a considerable rarity, represents the Royal Purple
Arch level of the Order, second to the Royal Black Institutions.
€ 2,000 - 3,000