'Croppies lie down and the Boyne water': Loyalist songs of heritage or hate?

Abstract

The Orange Order since its foundation in rural Ireland in 1795 has been dogged by accusations of bigotry and stirring up hate. Despite this, they managed to spread rapidly across the British World to countries like Ghana and New Zealand. Notable expressions of their Orange belief are in their music and songs. Yet to many Irish Catholics they are songs of hate.

This paper addresses the cultural and inflammatory use of the music and lyrics by examining Orange sources and other archival material in an international comparative context. What were the differences between the public and private contexts of these songs? What constitutes a party tune from a musical expression of culture? And to what extent was the Irish experience different compared to the Orange diaspora and why? These issues are important for they illuminate aspects of Irish Protestant migration and enable exploration of the fraternity’s rituals of encounter.