Orangemen desert Order warning

The Orange Order faces claims that numbers are falling

A senior figure in the Orange Order has warned that the organisation is constantly haemorrhaging people who think it is becoming too political.

The Reverend Brian Kennaway spoke of ignorance and malevolence in the Order after he and seven others resigned from its education committee.

They accused leaders in the Order's Grand Lodge of behaving in an "unchristian way" by investigating the committee secretively.

Rev Brian Kennaway warns Orange leaders

Mr Kennaway insisted there was no split between modernisers and hard-liners, but described a steady drift away of members at local and senior level from the Protestant organisation.

However, the Orange Order has accused several members of the institution of attempting to discredit the organisation by making public pronouncements regarding the internal workings of orangism.

In a statement on Thursday, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland said it expressed deep regret that some members of the institution found it necessary to go public on internal matters.

It said: "Grand Lodge officers are not prepared to respond to this attempt to discredit the institution other than to express their disappointment that a few have seen fit to proceed down this road.

"The issue will as always be dealt with thought the correct procedures in the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and in accordance with Orange principles."

Mr Kennaway described the Orange Order as very different to what it was when he joined 35 years ago and said that, sadly, it was much more politically oriented.

Confrontation: Drumcree Parade 1988 reaches barricade

The Presbyterian minister from Crumlin in County Antrim admitted he had considered resigning altogether.

He said that many Orangemen had left after the summer of 1998, which saw a massive, violent demonstration when the Drumcree parade was blocked in Portadown.

There's a constant haemorrhaging, people just walk away

Rev Brian Kennaway

"There hasn't been a split in the Orange Order ... there's a constant haemorrhaging, people just walk away. At local lodge level they just drift out. At senior level there are many in the senior officer team who have drifted out."

He did not know what would happen now to the Order's education committee, and added that he was not clear which way the Order as a whole was heading.

"I'm not so sure whether it's ignorance or malevolence that's driving the Order at the moment.

Orange Order "going nowhere"

"There seems to be a total lack of direction, lack of vision ... and when there's lack of direction, lack of vision obviously people go nowhere."

He said most Orangemen in rural Ulster were "blissfully unaware" and not interested in the politics of the Order.

Mr Kennaway is the former convenor of the education committee, and thought it had been too open-minded for the Grand Lodge.

We tried to be innovative and progressive, but seemingly that was a fault

Rev Brian Kennaway

"We tried to be innovative and progressive, but seemingly that was a fault," he said.

A statement by the eight members of the Order's education committee condemned the secretive nature of the investigation, and claimed the Grand Lodge acted in an unbrotherly and unchristian way. They also said it had initially withheld the full results of the investigation.

Mr Kennaway said the committee was never told what prompted the investigation, and claimed different members were asked different questions.

He believes the committee may have been the victim of a deal between the Grand Lodge and the hard-line "Spirit of Drumcree" group of Orangemen, who were threatening to split the Order over the issue of Orange parades.

He said the education committee had been working for ten years to try to raise the profile of the Orange Order, and take its message of promoting Protestantism to people who would not have known about it.

He said the committee had attended conferences, written articles and organised events including one attended by the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

"Some people in the hard-line leadership of the Order seemed to resent that," he noted.