The Mail on Sunday (Irish edition) is not everybody’s idea of a truth-telling newspaper (that’s an understatement). They had a front-page ‘exclusive’ earlier this month entitled ‘Humphreys Husband’s Secret Orange Order Past’ about the Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys’ husband Eric’s’s alleged membership of the order some 50 years ago. It claimed the candidate, who is a Presbyterian, tried to “evade” questions about when precisely her husband may have been in the order, and “admitted” that she had attended Orange parades in Monaghan as a child. This was the moment “the wheels came off” her media appearance in her home county, it added.
In a follow-up opinion piece in the Irish Times, UCD historian Edward Burke, who has written a well-reviewed book about the unionists of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal during the War of Independence and afterwards, told the story of Heather Humpheys’ grandfather, a Ulster Volunteer Force section leader, shooting an IRA volunteer in the face during a raid on his house in Aghabog, near Humphreys’ home village of Drum, in 1920.
In a follow-up opinion piece in the Irish Times, UCD historian Edward Burke, who has written a well-reviewed book about the unionists of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal during the War of Independence and afterwards, told the story of Heather Humpheys’ grandfather, a Ulster Volunteer Force section leader, shooting an IRA volunteer in the face during a raid on his house in Aghabog, near Humphreys’ home village of Drum, in 1920.
Continue @ 2 Irelands Together.
 is not everybody’s idea of a truth-telling newspaper (th...&p[url]=https://www.thepensivequill.com/2025/10/the-orange-order-is-part-of-ireland-and.html&p[images][0]=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmuUNLti90A4q7NvdKbeN3oGzIFMRjL2XndZV2DUR91fA429cfOq1vqgcwctUOEDKj_UfFki5LCOdDjMYPGeQzcZG14UfM_6WoYRDUvMi4O0lFaaM_FocmvBPWvH5wxD9RwQZutVF34CDVrk5ktSywi05Ajj5nRARqISP4RqjVGP5EeoEcBdTj2OoYCys/s1600/01%20Quill%20Hand.png){kind=link}
Interesting article, any increase in dialogue and reach out is to be welcomed.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Steve, well worth a read, as are the follow on comments from Frank Schnittger & Frankie Ross.
DeleteHJ,
DeleteI've no interest in the OO but they are definitely a product of my community, afraid of their own shadow at times and capable of great vitriol. However, there are a great many of them that are 'live and let live' types. My point in increasing dialogue is to opine that the moderates would win if discourse was encouraged. Like Yoda said, Fear leads to hate and hate leads to the darkside! Fear is only of the unknown so get rid of that...Bit like us with the GAA, we'd be terrified of going to a game for the reasons Frank responded to in that comment.