An Orange diaspora? New Zealand - an international context

Abstract

Since its beginnings in the agrarian conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland in 1795, the loyal Orange Institution (LOI), or Orangeism as it is often called, spread rapidly across the British World. With its mix of loyalism and pan-Protestantism, Orangeism adapted to a variety of countries from Canada and the United States to Ghana and Togo, and the term an 'Orange diaspora' has been coined.

But to what extent can we conceptualise an overarching Orange diaspora or Orange migration? This paper addresses that key question by examining Orange sources and other archival research from New Zealand in an international comparative context. Did the Orange Order in New Zealand emerge in the same way that it did elsewhere? Who belonged to it? And to what extent were transnational ties maintained with the Orange Order in other destinations and why?

These issues are important for they illuminate aspects of Irish Protestant migration, enable exploration of the fraternity's ideology, and facilitate reflections on broader conceptual issues relating to diaspora and transnationalism.