THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Defiant words as Orangemen march on Dolly’s Brae to mark century old ‘battle’

In a two mile long procession, bright with banners and bands, thousands of Ulster’s Orangemen had walked over Dolly’s Brae near Castlewellan to commemorate the centenary of the opposed march which had been held there in 1849, reported the News Letter on this day in 1949.

Mr W W B Topping, KC, MP, Chief Unionist Whip, told the processionists that, by insisting upon their rights, despite intimidation, their forefathers who crossed the brae had kept open the way to freedom. He said that the Northern Ireland Government was never more determined to see that the civil and religious liberty which the people of Ulster insisted upon would be maintained for their children and for all time.

The scores of lodges who took part in the procession were led by Mr J E Bailey, District Master of the Rathfriland District.

Mr Bailey said that politicians in southern Ireland were nothing less than “agents of the Church of Rome” and were “out to make another Spain of this country”.

Referring to the launch of a new appeal for Orange charities, Mr Bailey said that the Roman Catholic Action Fund millions at its disposal but that if the Roman Catholics tried to “buy them out” they could “meet force with force” in matters of money as well as in affairs of arms.

Meanwhile, Mr Brian Faulkner, MP, was highly critical of the anti-partition propaganda that was being spread across the USA. He said that the Unionist Party and the Government of Northern Ireland would ensure that the Americans would be given the full facts and that copies of the booklet Ulster is British had been sent to every member of the House of Representatives and the Senate.