Doyle meets Orange Order members to speak of '98

A RENEWED alliance of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter looks increasingly likely after a "very pleasant lunch" between Minister of State, Ms Avril Doyle, and members of the Orange Order.

The meal, in the members' restaurant at Leinster House, was to discuss a role for the Order in the official bicentennial commemorations of the 1798 rebellion.

Ms Doyle, chairwoman of the National 1798 Bicentennial committee, met the Rev Brian Kennaway, head of the Orange Order's education committee, and Mr David Richardson, a researcher at Queen's University on the history of Northern Ireland government. Prof Tom Bartlett, professor of Irish history at UCD, and Senator Mary Henry also attended the meeting.

"We had a very pleasant exchange of ideas and views," Ms Doyle said after the meeting, the first of its kind involving Orange Order representatives travelling to Dublin to meet a government minister. The rebellion was a "shared heritage" and both sides believe it should be commemorated "in a non-sectarian, inclusive way", Ms Doyle said.

Mr Kennaway said the meeting "went very well" and Mr Richardson described it as a "fair and frank exchange of views". He said our views on 1798 run along the same lines. We don't want the commemoration to turn into a sectarian celebration".

The Orange Order includes in its ranks descendants of the yeomanry who suppressed the `98 rebellion. Some of those who sided with the rebels also became members of the Order. Ms Doyle said " we represent "different traditions but both are involved in the commemoration of 1798".

Mr Kennaway had written to the Minister to see if the commemoration was a solely southern event and she invited him to lunch.

At the meeting, the Minister outlined the Government's programme for the 200th anniversary, many of the details of which are not being disclosed at the moment. The Orange Order representatives added their proposals, which are also under wraps for the time being.

The Minister said, however, that the Government planned five or six major national events and there would be some cross-Border ceremonies, particularly in Antrim.

Both sides plan to keep in touch over the next 15 months in the run-up to the start of the 1798 commemoration.

The question of re-erecting a statue of King William III in Dublin was not raised at the meeting. The Orange Order has written to Dublin Corporation asking it to replace the statue which was erected in 1701 and blown up by republicans in 1928. Ms Doyle said it was not an issue for the 1798 commemoration committee as "King William was a long time dead by then".