AN ORANGEWOMAN expelled for wearing her sash during a funeral procession yesterday won reinstatement to the order.
Honor Hawthorne was also awarded legal costs in bringing her High Court challenge against being forced out.
A judge who declared her dismissal unlawful also urged both sides to settle their differences.
Mr Justice McCloskey said: “I sincerely trust that, aided by the clarification, certainty and finality which this judgment seeks to provide, some rapprochement between the parties will be possible.
“The organisations concerned in this matter are of greater importance than any individual member and they will survive, come what may. However, it is important that they go forward fortified, rather than weakened. This kind of legal dispute, regrettable though it is, can have positive and beneficial consequences and one sincerely trusts that all parties will consider, and give effect to, the judgment of the court in this spirit.”
Ms Hawthorne (40), sued the Association of Loyal Orangewomen of Ireland’s grand mistress, Olive Whitten, and grand secretary Joan Beggs, over the decision to expel her.
The action centred on her participation, along with five other women, at the funeral in September 2005 of fellow member Lily Boyce whose family had requested an Orange representation.
At the time Ms Hawthorne, a shop-owner from Markethill, was secretary of the Mountnorris Lodge and district mistress of Armagh District No 2. She claimed permission was given for her and other Orangewomen to participate in their regalia at all stages of the funeral, starting with transfer of the hearse from the deceased’s home and ending at the graveyard burial.
The defendants’ case was that authorisation was given only for collarettes to be worn in the church. During the hearing it emerged that a document setting out reasons for lodging charges against her included a reference to the event looking like a paramilitary funeral.
Ms Hawthorne’s lawyers argued that a subsequent disciplinary process against her was unfair.
Following negotiations a resolution was reached which allowed Mr Justice McCloskey to deliver judgment yesterday.