'A Melancholy Record': The Story of the Nineteenth-Century Irish Party Processions Act

Abstract

This article traces the history of the Nineteenth-Century Irish Party Processions Acts which forbid all "Orange" and "Green" party processions in Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century. It examines the effect of the Act on Twelfth of July marches, St. Patrick's Day parades, as well as the mass-meetings of Daniel O'Connell in the 1820s and 1840s. It also gives an account of the Party Emblems Act 1860, which forbid the wearing of certain Orange and Green Emblems, as well as "The Battle of Dolly's Brae", a serious sectarian clash which occurred in 1849, and was the cause of the Processions Act being reintroduced in 1850.

Keywords: Orange marching, Party Processions, Daniel O'Connell, Parades, Dolly's Brae, Nineteenth Century Ireland