EDWARD HUDSON

Sectarian fights had begun to break out two years before. These escalated in ferocity and soon there were some deaths. But this event of terror, torture and atrocity against a family that was not fighting changed the nature of the interreligious Irish conflict forever. The outraged Protestants organized and armed themselves and things came to a climax in September 1795 when there was an armed battle in which the Protestants killed 30 Catholics who were now calling themselves “Defenders”, with few losses. They then marched to Longhgall and there, in the home of James Sloan the Orange Order was founded and the two groups fought each other for the next 200 years.

Sectarian fights had begun to break out two years before. These escalated in ferocity and soon there were some deaths. But this event of terror, torture and atrocity against a family that was not fighting changed the nature of the interreligious Irish conflict forever. The outraged Protestants organized and armed themselves and things came to a climax in September 1795 when there was an armed battle in which the Protestants killed 30 Catholics who were now calling themselves “Defenders”, with few losses. They then marched to Longhgall and there, in the home of James Sloan the Orange Order was founded and the two groups fought each other for the next 200 years.