| abstract | - The 1790s were a time of agitation in Ireland. Much of it was led by two Irish nationalist groups — the Society of United Irishmen (whose leaders were mainly Presbyterians) and the Defenders (a mainly Catholic rural "vigilante" group). The United Irishmen was founded in October 1791 by liberal Protestants in Belfast. They wanted greater independence from Britain and called for parliamentary reform with equal representation for all Irish males, regardless of religion. Opposing them was the unionist Protestant Peep-o'-Day Boys, a rural "vigilante" group much like the Defenders. The Orange Society was founded in the aftermath of an incident known as the "Battle of the Diamond" which occurred on 21 September 1795 near Loughgall, County Armagh. This was a confrontation between Catholic nationalist Defenders and Protestant unionist Peep-o'-Day Boys. Between four and thirty (mostly un-armed) Defenders were killed. The three main founders were James Wilson (founder of the Orange Boys), Daniel Winter and James Sloan. The first Orange lodge established in Dyan, County Tyrone. Its first grand master was James Sloan of Loughgall, in whose inn the victory by the Peep-o'-Day Boys was celebrated. One of its goals was to hinder the efforts of Irish nationalist groups. The Governor of Armagh, Lord Gosford, gave his opinion of the violence in Armagh which resulted from the "battle" at a meeting of magistrates on 28 December 1795. He said, "It is no secret that a persecution is now raging in this country… the only crime is… profession of the Roman Catholic faith. Lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges…". However, two former grand masters of the Order William Blacker and Robert Hugh Wallace have questioned this statement, saying whoever the Governor believed were the “lawless banditti” they could not have been Orangemen as there were no lodges in existence at the time of his speech. By 1795, the United Irishmen (still led mainly by Protestants) had begun to advocate the forming of an independent Irish republic through "Uniting Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter". United Irishmen activity was on the rise, and the government hoped to thwart it by backing the Orange Order from 1796 onward. Nationalist historians Thomas A. Jackson and John Mitchel argued that the government's goal was to hinder the United Irishmen by fomenting sectarianism — it would create disunity and disorder under pretence of "passion for the Protestant religion". Mitchel wrote that the government invented and spread "fearful rumours of intended massacres of all the Protestant people by the Catholics". Thomas Knox, British military commander in Ulster, wrote in August 1796 that "As for the Orangemen, we have rather a difficult card to play...we must to a certain degree uphold them, for with all their licentiousness, on them we must rely for the preservation of our lives and properties should critical times occur". When the United Irishmen rebellion broke out in 1798, Orangemen and ex-Peep-o'-Day Boys helped government forces in suppressing it. According to Jim Smyth "later apologists rather implausibly deny any connection between the Peep-o'-Day Boys and the first Orangeman or, even less plausibly, between the Orangemen and the mass wrecking of Catholic cottages in Armagh in the months following 'the Diamond' — all of them, however, acknowledge the movement's lower class origins." According to Ruth Dudley Edwards and two former grand masters, Orangemen were among the first to contribute to repair funds for Catholic property damaged in the violence surrounding the rebellion.
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