Exporting Brotherhood: Orangeism in South Australia

The idea of fraternity, and how to organise it, was one of nineteenth-century Europe's invisible exports to the New World. This paper explores the international diffusion of the Loyal Orange Institution, with comparative reference to Freemasonry, its main model. Three alternative explanations are discussed for its appeal outside Ireland (that it facilitated the assimilation of emigrants, transmitted ‘tribal' Irish animosities to fresh contexts, or adapted itself to pre-existing sectarian rivalries abroad). These hypotheses are tested used evidence from South Australia, where Orangeism flourished in the absence of heavy Ulster immigration. A collective profile of Orange South Australia is derived from Lodge records showing age, religious denomination and occupation, and the appeal of Orangeism is related to local political and religious contexts. In this case at least, Orangeism was primarily an export of organisational techniques rather than of Irish personnel or Irish bigotry.