Quincey Dougan sits at the Orange memorial at the bottom of Main Street in Markethill. At the top of the hill stands the Millar Memorial Orange Hall, one of a dozen Orange Halls in and around the south Armagh town.
The first two names on the Orange memorial, two of 11 in total, are R Freeburn and R Walker, members respectively of Loyal Orange Lodges (LOL) 59 and 132.
Both were named Robert and both were murdered on January 5th, 1976, when republican gunmen shot 11 Protestant workers at nearby Kingsmill. Forensic evidence linked a gun used by the killers to IRA man Raymond McCreesh, in whose honour a children's playground was named in nearby Newry in 2001. *
History is everywhere in Markethill. This weekend, as Orangemen prepare to mark July 12th, the anniversary of the 1690 Williamite War victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James, they do so in a state of some agitation.
A strong sense of "We've had enough", is reflected in posters, calling on people to "stand up" – for the union, for "fair and accountable policing", for their community, but also to face down the hated Northern Ireland protocol.
“Base Protestantism accepted the rule of law and that’s what stopped a civil war,” Dougan says of the modern-day Troubles. “But now people are saying ‘but’ and that ‘but’ is getting stronger. Sinn Féin worked hand in glove with a private militia to further their goal – a united Ireland. They didn’t give a shit about anything else.
Travelling along Coolmidish Road out of the town, you can see the legacies of attacks and killings everywhere
“The anger over the protocol is totally underestimated by the media and how unionists are thinking. We are very, very angry,” he tells The Irish Times.
Dougan, a 47-year-old civil servant and father of four, has immersed himself in the history and heritage of his community and is a member of LOL 788 in Redrock Orange Hall, the Red Rock Purple Heroes.
But he is also a member of an Orange lodge in Leitrim, LOL 404 of Killegar, and of the Royal Black Preceptory lodge 595, also known as the Rising Star of Bethlehem.
Markethill, the home town of the late SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon, is home to about 1,500 people, 80 per cent of them Protestant: "This is probably the most Orange town in Northern Ireland, " he maintains.
More than 500 locals are members of the Orange Order, which has 12 lodges, plus two women’s lodges, two junior lodges for boys and girls, and nine marching bands.
“My first memory is of a marching band,” says Dougan, a warm and friendly man who exudes huge pride in and love for the Order. “It’s about community, heritage and family. I don’t know any different. When you stop us parading, you’re not stopping a parade. You’re attacking who I am.”
Travelling along Coolmidish Road out of the town, you can see the legacies of attacks and killings everywhere. Dougan scans the landscape and mentions, as though it were yesterday, three Protestant churches being burned down and 120 people being marched out of the town to a lake, piked there and drowned.
That was in 1641.
'I'm probably a bit of a rarity because I'm happy to say that I'm Irish, but I'm British as well and republicans can't understand that'
More recent butchery is present too. Passing an unremarkable bungalow in the countryside, he says: “That’s Iris Farley’s house.” *
In 1987, the Irish National Liberation Army came to the house to kill Iris Farley's son, a member of the part-time Ulster Defence Regiment. He was out, and so, instead, the 72 year old was shot. She died of her wounds five weeks later.
“See that there,” says Dougan, indicating rising ground as we pass along the road. “That’s known as Dougan Mountain,” he says, turning to me and smiling. “See, we’ve been here a while,” he says of his family.
“This is about identity and heritage. I’m probably a bit of a rarity because I’m happy to say that I’m Irish, but I’m British as well and republicans can’t understand that. I look east for my sport, my TV, my newspapers, my politics, not south.”
Dougan's maternal great grandfather, John Barber, signed Sir Edward Carson's Ulster Covenant in Castleblayney Parochial Hall in 1912.
Accordionists, flute players, drummers, banners and bunting will herald the Orangemen as they wend their way through the town
Redrock Orange Hall is like thousands of community halls everywhere, with a kitchen, a small ante-room for meetings and a main hall and walls covered in framed photographs of bands and lodge members.
The photos include honoured members, such as Stanley Cordner, 93 years old and a loyal Orangeman for 76 years, and his father, James, peering out from a sepia picture.
“A border poll,” Dougan repeats my query. “It would be 80 per cent to stay as we are. Nationalists aren’t stupid. Republicans aren’t stupid.”
Why would any unionist vote for a united Ireland? “A united Ireland negates the existence of anyone called a unionist,” he says.
On the 12th, lodge members will gather in the Redrock hall and, before setting off to march through the town, each will hold a Bible in their hand for a moment and think of their faith.
Accordionists, flute players, drummers, banners and bunting will herald the Orangemen as they wend their way through the town, down and around the Orange Memorial, the last name on which is listed as “Bro. D Dougan”.
He was David Dougan, Quincey's uncle, and he died in October 2005, after being shot in his stomach and chest by the IRA while standing in his cottage kitchen on the Redrock Road in September 1992.
Orange Order lodges: ‘They’re passing laws that are contrary to God’s faith’
There are Orange Order lodges in several counties in the Republic. They include over 200 members in Monaghan and around 140 in Cavan.
Robert Sturgeon and Henry Jordan are among the hundreds of members of the Orange Order living in Monaghan and Cavan. For them, the order is about religion, specifically scripture-based faith, and not politics.
However, politics is never far from the surface. “The Holy Bible is our rulebook,” says Henry. “The biggest problem in this country,” says Robert, “is that religion has nothing to do with it.
“They’re passing laws that are contrary to God’s faith. They’ll pass a law saying you can’t cut a hedge or spray insects but then one that says you can cut a child out of a mother’s womb.”
Same-sex marriage is “contrary to God’s law”, they both hold.
They see “difficult times ahead”.
“The Almighty will punish for not following His laws and His son,” says Robert. “He moves slowly but I’d say things will get worse.”
For them, July 12th is a celebration of “religious liberty and freedom”.
“A lot of people forget,” says Robert, “that the Battle of the Boyne turned the history.”
They see the Northern Ireland protocol as “the EEC punishing the British” for Brexit and while they have sympathy for, and in some ways identify with their northern brethren, they are “happy as could be [in the Republic]”.
"We feel at home," says Henry who, because Covid has stopped the order's usual march on the beach at Rossnowlagh in Donegal, plans to celebrate the 12th at Maguiresbridge in Fermanagh.
* An earlier version of this article stated in error that 11 Protestant workers were shot dead in Kingsmill on January 5th, 1976. In fact one of the workers survived his injuries. The article was also amended to remove an incorrect reference to the oldest person murdered in the Troubles.
