John Gibney, Trinity College Dublin

The Orange Order was founded in Armagh in September 1795, but had deeper roots; William III's war in Ireland was being commemorated almost since it ended. The equestrian statue of William in Dublin's College Green was erected in 1701, providing a focal point for loyalist demonstrations up to the end of the nineteenth century (it was destroyed in 1929). There was an Orange tradition in Ireland long before the Orange Order; the Order simply tapped into it

The Orange Order was founded amidst sectarian and agrarian clashes in Armagh; it subsequently played a key role in the suppression of the 1798 rebellion, and later mobilised opposition to Catholic Emancipation. Despite dissolving itself in April 1836, it remained vibrant at a local level, remobilising in response to the perceived threat of Home Rule from the 1880s onward and remained active throughout the early decades of the twentieth century.

Throughout its history the Orange Order has fulfilled two key roles for Protestants in Ireland (and especially, after 1920, in Northern Ireland); as a cultural and religious institution, and as a political organisation. The roles have often been intertwined, but the figure of William was always pivotal, and remains so. His status as Protestant icon is enshrined within the Order's symbolism and ritual. His role was, and is, straightforward: in 1690 he had saved Irish Protestants from imminent destruction at Catholic hands. This was the essence of his legacy, and it was inevitable that at moments of crisis, real and perceived, Irish Protestants would hark back to this.

But a Dutch monarch with a firm belief in tolerance seems an unlikely hero to an exclusively Protestant Irish fraternity; for example, the traditional claim that he embodied civil and religious liberty is at odds with the Orange Order's explicit bar on Catholic membership. William was in Ireland for less than three months, and his actions suggested a willingness to disregard Protestant opinion there. The anniversary of the battle of the Boyne (12 July) remains the most important date in the Orange calendar. But it was neither the only battle of the war, nor the most important. Its resonance stems from the fact that William was present at it, and won.
William of Orange fought a Protestant war in Ireland, and won a Protestant victory; however, the locals put their own spin on it. For the Orange Order, the maintenance of the Protestant faith, and by extension Protestant society in Ireland (and later Northern Ireland), remained the ultimate rationale for its existence. The Order was intended to defend it, by faith or by politics, and consequently the events of 1689-91 are hugely important; they were a moment of danger from which Protestants were saved. William of Orange was deemed responsible for this. The Orange Order, in all of its manifestations, took it upon itself to maintain, and if need be reaffirm, that salvation. William's life beyond the afternoon of the battle of the Boyne is of little consequence to this enduring reality.