Sir, - Dr Hugh Dunne (June 2nd) is absolutely right. Ulster Orangeism is no Dutch import. Indeed, the tolerant and enlightened people of Holland must be greatly bemused by the behaviour of an organisation which they might reasonably regard as having usurped the name and traduced the image of its founding dynasty. For the record, the "Orange" of which King William the Third was Prince is the present-day town of Orange in the French departement of Vaucluse. Its inhabitants are known as Orangeois (Orangemen!) and they are for the most part, at least nominally, of the Roman Catholic persuasion.
King William the Third (King Billy) was no longer de facto Prince of Orange when he arrived in Ireland. Nor indeed when he became King of England, since the principality had been annexed or absorbed into the French state by King Louis XIV in 1673. William, however, as "stadhouder" or governor of the United Provinces, continued to fight against the French for many years before eventually settling for the throne of England. On his death in 1702 England and France, which had formed a secret alliance, promptly declared war on Holland, the main outcome of which was the loss of Dutch maritime supremacy. Perfidious Albion. . .
The Dutch Royal House continues to style itself the House of Orange, after the long-defunct principality, for purely dynastic reasons. Its founding father, William the First of Orange (King Billy's grandfather), also known as William the Silent, was actually a German who inherited the principality in 1544 but whose main claim to fame is, ironically, as the father of Dutch republicanism. It was of course as a republic that Holland (then known as the United Provinces) achieved its greatest power and prosperity in the 17th century, fighting (and winning) three naval wars against England in the process.
Although there is an Order of Orange-Nassau (the family name) instituted by Queen Wilhelmina in 1892, there are to my knowledge no "isms" attached to the House of Orange, certainly no sectarian societies replete with Masonic regalia and atavistic drumbeating. Maybe this is because the population of Holland is almost equally divided between Protestant and Catholic, but more probably in my view because the Dutch have much more to be proud of in their glorious history than mere sentiments of sectarian superiority. - Yours, etc.,
Patrick Bailey, Palmerston Gardens, Dublin 6.