Senior Unionist calls for Orange Order link to be severed

The Ulster Unionist Party has once again attempted to distance itself from the Orange Order at Saturday's annual conference in County Londonderry.

Speaking at the Londonderry's Millennium Forum, senior unionist James Cooper called for delegates to the party's 860-strong Ulster Unionist Council to be wholly elected through constituency branches – not sent forward through bloc membership of an organisation such as the Orange Order.

The Orange Order currently controls around 120 seats on the council and the UUP believe that severing the 100-year-old link with the Orange Order will make the party more attractive to Catholic voters.

Earlier today, Mr Cooper said: "There was a need to modernise our membership system and part of that is our relationship with the Orange Order. We started that process almost 10 years ago and I have been engaged in talks for two years now.

"We have gone round in a circle and the Orange are not prepared for a change. The perception is that we are linked to what is a religious order. The whole ethos of the Orange Order is based on religious concepts that do not lie happily in my view with a modern political party which has no business to be in that kind of territory.

"I think that perception needs to be changed and the type of linkage we have with the Orange needs to be changed."

The proposals articulated by Mr Cooper, would see Orange Order members approach UUP constituency branches to seek election, rather than through the Orange Order bloc process.

Mr Cooper also said that some Orange Order delegates could also be members of rival political parties, which made the status quo less palatable to modernisers. However, Dawson Bailie, vice chairman of the Donaghadee and Millisle branch rejected this saying: "That is red herring. We within the institution try to make sure all our delegates are paid up members of their various branches – of which some party councillors are not."

He added: "There is no problem with modernisation, we are not against modernisation. I don't see anything wrong with a Christian being apart of a mainstream political party and Catholics have no reason to stay out of the Ulster Unionist party if they wish to do so."

There is deep opposition to changing the close ties between the UUP and the Orange Order – not least from party president Martin Smyth MP, also a Grand Master of the organisation, who ruled out any possibility of change in the near future.

"While I never hold anything unchangeable, the marriage between the pair will continue to exist for the near future," he said.

Lagan Valley MP, and Orange Order member, Jeffrey Donaldson said that while he recognised the need to update the structures in terms of internal party organisation, it was important, when it came to the Orange Order, that agreement be reached on how the link should be reflected in any organisational change.

(GMcG)