Orange Victims’ Day 2022: Emotional families moved to realise their loved ones are not forgotten

That was the feedback David Martin, manager of Brownlow House in Lurgan, which is hosting the ‘Moving Tributes’ exhibition to mark Orange Victims’ Day. The exhibition displays 40 Orange banners and drums from around Northern Ireland which commemorate murdered members of the order who died since 1921.

It is held on 1 September to mark the anniversary of the IRA attack on Tullyvallen Orange Lodge in south Armagh, which saw five men murdered in 1975.

“We invited a lot of the victims’ families to attend the opening on Thursday morning to show them that they have lost their loved ones but we haven’t forgotten about them,” Mr Martin said today.

“I think it was a comfort to the families as well to know that their loved one has not been forgotten.”

After several speeches, a lone piper playing a lament led the families into Brownlow House, a group of about 70 people.

“The victims’ families were the first to go in and see the exhibition. To be honest it was quite an emotional moment. The Rev John Noble, who had a relative who was murdered opened the launch in a word of prayer, and the emotion was also clear in his voice.

“When you realise that the names on the banners are only a small portion of those that lost their lives it brings to mind the magnitude of what happened. It is very poignant when we hear repeatedly in the media now that there was no alternative to violence.”

On the first day visitors dropped in who were from England, Scotland and Canada. The majority of those murdered were UDR, RUC or RUC Reserve, he said.

“What was their crime? They were members of the security forces and their lives were cruelly taken away for that reason. Let’s get it straight. All murder was wrong and we know atrocities were carried out through terrorism on both sides. But some sections are now seeing a rewriting of history where the security forces are being branded as the bad guy and those that carried out atrocities are seen as the good guys. We want to change that narrative.”

The feedback has been very positive.

“Some people think they are coming to see some banners. But whenever they have gone around the exhibition it has caused reflection and reminded many people - this did happen, and the magnitude of it.

“It is just name after name after name. We can’t forget what happened so we don’t return to that ever again.

”Victims feel they are forgotten but an exhibition like this lets them know they are not.”Those who attended on the first day included Arlene Foster, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and NIO Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Lord Caine Caine, among others.

Grand Master Edward Stevenson said: “It is through Orange Victims Day and exhibitions such as this that we recognize the sacrifice made by the 339 Orangemen and one Orangewoman. The majority of these victims were murdered while serving as members of the security forces. However, others were killed simply because they were Protestants.

“The recent support for the IRA and its despicable terror campaign – both from Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill and her insistence that there was no alternative to the violence and through the chanting of pro-IRA slogans by thousands of young people at a concert in West Belfast – is incomprehensible, particularly for those of us who lived through the worst years of murder and violence. I can only imagine the deep hurt that such glorification of murder must cause the families of all those who lost loved ones at the hands of the terrorists.”

Entry to the Lurgan exhibition is free. Opening times are 1 September 12noon-9pm; Friday, 2 September 10am-9pm; 3 September 10am-4pm.

Following the launch of the exhibition, representatives of the Orange Order, Association of Loyal Orangewomen of Ireland, Junior Grand Orange Lodge, The Apprentice Boys of Derry, The Royal Arch Purple Chapter and the Independent Loyal Orange Institution attended an Act of Remembrance hosted by the Royal Black Institution at its Loughgall Headquarters.