The religion of Orange politics is an ethnographic study of the Orange Order in contemporary Scotland. The Order is ultra-Protestant, ultra-British, and ultra-unionist. It is also vehemently anti-Catholic. Drawing on new debates about the politics of hate, this book asks if religious bigotry can ever form part of human experiences of 'The Good'.

Orangeism: A Historical Profile traces the Orange movement from its pre-Reformation beginnings in the French principality of Orange, to its role in 21st century Ulster. This narrative history offers a lucid account which explains how the Orange tradition took root and developed. Many important events are examined, including the Orange/Green controversies of the 19th century, the Order’s role in the creation of Northern Ireland, its influence during the Stormont era and its stance during the ‘Troubles’. The book also features hard-to-get data provided on the Order’s associated bodies: The Apprentice Boys of Derry, the Purple Order and the Black Preceptory, and provides details of their rituals and lodge practices. International Orangeism and the Order’s role in popular culture are explained and apprised, and the stage is filled with historic figures. Meticulously researched and written without malice, Orangeism: A Historical Profile embodies a reevaluation of accepted views and includes information from unused, usually sealed, archives. Praise for the First Edition: “At last there is an excellent, reliable and absorbing account of Orangeism” – Eamonn Phoenix, The Irish News “A thorough and determinedly unbiased account … written with great enthusiasm” – Niall Savage, The Sunday Business Post

The first systematic social history of the Orange Order. Based on unprecedented access to the Order's archives, the book charts the Order's path from the peak of its influence, in the early 1960s, to its present crisis, and argues that the traditional Unionism of the past is giving way to a more militant form which is winning the hearts of the younger generation.

In this final book of the Legends trilogy Hoole reclaims the thrown of his father and goes on to wage a war against the forces of chaos, greed and oppression led by the powerful warlord-tyrants. Grank, the first collier, uses his skills with fire and metals to forge weapons for battle. With great trepidation Hoole uses the power of the Ember in the final, decisive battle and wins. At the dawn of a new ear of peace, Hoole searches for the ideal place to establish not a kingdom but an order of free owls and finds the Great Tree. (continued) There he rejects the absolute power his followers want to invest in him and establishes instead the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, an order of noble owls of all kinds based on learning, equality and nobility of thought and deed. Before he dies he takes the Ember back to the Sacred Volcanoes and hides it, knowing that if it falls into the wrong talons its powers would endanger the Great Tree and the principles it is founded on. He returns to the Tree and dies ending a time of magic and legend but leaving an order of owls noble in thought and deed, dedicated to learning and equality among all owls.

A compelling narrative of contemporary Ireland from one of its most highly respected historians The Ireland of today is a place poised between the divisiveness of deep-seated conflict and the modernizing pull of material prosperity. Though each state's history is strikingly divergent, the mirroring ideologies that fuel them are remarkably symbiotic. With Ireland Since 1939, one of the most distinguished Irish historians working today casts a fresh and unpredictable eye to Ireland's history from World War II up through the present to show how-by putting aside its North/South conflict-Ireland can look forward to a prosperous economic future.

This book explores the role of freemasonry in the Volunteer movement of the 1780s and in the struggles over Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform, revolution and counter-revolution in the 1790s. Based on original research, the book addresses many common myths about the nature of early Irish freemasonry. It also explores the controversial relationship between masonry and Orangeism. The masonic lodge had many other roles besides secret rituals, convivial gatherings, and occasional political involvement. Lodges provided a measure of social security for the members, helpedÃ?Â?Ã?Â?emigrants integrate, enforced a code of respectable behaviour and arbitrated in disputes. Their public parades on St John's Day displayed masonic ceremonial rituals to the wider community. By 1800, there may have been as many as 20,000 freemasons in Ulster alone, many of them Catholics.

*Written by a team of acknowledged experts in the field, this book provides the first systematic analysis and survey of Orange Order members to date. *Will attract public interest and debate as well as much media comment. *Locates Orangeism within broader debates about Britishness. The Orange Order remains the largest organisation in Northern Irish civil society, with a membership exceeding the combined total of all the political parties in the region. This book provides the first ever comprehensive membership survey of the Orange Order. The book draws upon a detailed study of the Orange Order and on a wealth of individual interviews with Orange leaders and its grassroots base. It begins with a historical outline of the Order's development, before turning to a detailed assessment of its contemporary struggle for relevance amid political marginalisation, secularism and diminished benefits to its membership. The book charts the views of members on how to adapt to external changes; explor