Apart from the Ku Klux Klan no other collection of badly dressed,
middle-aged men is more despised and loathed by the liberal world
than Ulster's sartorial bigots, Orangemen. Collectively, an Orange
parade is nothing more than 1000 Ian Paisley clones marching down
the street. But that is not how Ulster's loyal brethren see
themselves. They fear they are misunderstood by a wider world and
that republican propaganda, the lies of the BBC etc, have clouded
our view of the true, decent, law-abiding, God-fearing, simple
Ulster folk they really are. Far from being bigots - their Orange
websites liberally invoke the writings of Martin Luther King - they
are in fact civil rights marchers whose only 'crime' is their
desire to march up and down the Queen's highway shrouded in their
regalia. And, strangely and rather wonderfully, that is how Dudley
Edwards, a Dublin-born, Catholic Irish writer, also sees them in
The Faithful Tribe. Dudley Edwards loves to march behind the band;
she is thrilled by foot-quickening tunes. Uniquely, for a Catholic
and a woman, Dudley Edwards is even an honorary Orangeman and has a
sash to prove it. If literary prizes were awarded for
contrarianism, then The Faithful Tribe would immediately head the
shortlist. The book is a dedicatetd and worthy attempt to humanize
and sympathize with the Orange monster. Her pencil portraits of
various Worshipful Masters paint a picture of a rather naive folk,
confused and bewildered by the outside world, who are not as bad as
they seem. But in another sense, the book, like the brethren, has a
very improper sense of history. It glosses over the dark side of
Orangeism and that murder and violence is inevitably part of their
story too. (Kirkus UK)
The first, intimate portrait of the Orange Order. If there is any
more controversial body of men (and, with the exception of Ruth
Dudley Edwards, who has been admitted to an honorary position in
her very own lodge, they are all men) in the British Isles, it is
hard to think who they might be. To most outsiders, grown men
parading in bowler hats, white gloves, coloured sashes or
collarettes, rolled umbrellas and banners showing scenes from the
Old Testament or from a war that ended three centuries ago, are
anachronistic, silly and provocative; to their enemies they are
triumphalist bigots; to most of their members, the lodges’
parades are a commemoration of the courage of their forefathers, a
proud declaration of their belief in civil and religious freedom, a
demonstration of their Britishness, a chance to catch up with old
friends and a jolly day out. Ruth Dudley Edwards is an unlikely
Joan of Arc for the Orangemen, but that she is; a trusted and liked
sympathizer, a woman, a Catholic from southern Ireland; one who
sees them as possibly rather bumptious and certainly their own
worst enemy, endlessly outpaced by the nimble Republicans in terms
of PR (which the Orangemen scorn to meddle with). She has written a
fond but not uncritical, indeed rather exasperated, portrait of
this tribe, with lashings of insider detail and revelation which no
one else could hope to obtain.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
