Authorship of ‘Qualifications of an Orangeman.'

I am able to make the interesting revelation that the ‘Qualifications of an Orangeman,' which have received so much praise in recent years, were composed by Colonel William Blacker (who was present at the Battle of the Diamond), and his uncle, Rev George Blacker.

The Latter who died on 1st May, 1910 (born 1764) became vicar of Seagoe in 1796 (the year following the Battle) at (says Colonel Blacker) ‘one of the most critical moments in the history of modern politics, when the reaction caused by the battle of the Diamond was still in a furious vigour and he once decided on taking part which tended to the pacification of the country.

He identified himself with the people by becoming a member of the Orange Institution and thus acquired an influence among them as well as a knowledge which he made use of to keep them within proper bounds, while following those principles of Protestant loyalty which prevented a bloody revolution in Ireland. He is a man of active habits and intense zeal, exceedingly charitable…… He was called to the office of County Grand Master, and it could not have been in better hands.'

Colonel Blacker was also responsible for the changes necessitated by the ‘New System' (1816).

The Qualifications Of An Orangeman

An Orangeman should have sincere love and veneration for his Heavenly Father; a humble and steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, believing in him as the only mediator between God and man. He should cultivate truth and justice, brotherly kindness and charity, devotion and piety, concord and unity, and obedience to the laws; his deportment should seek the society of the virtuous, and avoid that of the evil; he should honour and diligently study the Holy Scriptures, and make them the rule of his faith and practice; he should love, uphold and defend the Protestant religion, and sincerely desire and endeavour to propagate its doctrines and precepts; he should strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing (by his presence or otherwise) any act or ceremony of Popish worship, he should by all lawful means, resist the ascendency of that Church, its encroachments, and the extension of its power, ever abstaining from all uncharitable words, actions or sentiments, towards his Roman Catholic brethren; he should remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day and attend the public worship of God, and diligently train up his offspring, and all under his control, in the fear of God, and in the Protestant faith; he should never take the name of God in vain, but abstain from all cursing and profane language, and use every opportunity of discouraging these, and all other sinful practices, in others; his conduct should be guided by wisdom and prudence, and marked by honesty, temperance and sobriety; the glory of God and the welfare of man, the honour of his Sovereign, and the good of his country, should be the motive of his actions.