We were honoured once again to be invited as an Institution to take part in the annual Orange Victims Day commemoration which this year was held at the Museum of Orange Heritage, Sloan’s House in Loughgall. Joining with leaders of the other Loyal Orders we came together to commemorate the 344 members of the Orange Family murdered by terrorists. We are often humbled by the service and sacrifice of our Orange brethren especially in isolated areas along our border, as they held the line and paid the price to defend our freedoms. We also give thanks for pour own members who served and sacrificed in the security forces often posted to difficult and dangerous areas.
TULLYVALLAN Massacre
The event was all the more poignant, given that it fell on the very day and date fifty years on from the massacre at Tullyvallen Orange Hall where five members of LOL 630 were gunned down in cold blood by the IRA. Our Institution has long supported victims and their support groups from the days of the Long March which waded together the campaigns of the Loyal Orders and Victims into a mass public movement calling for Human Rights for Protestants. Our support still continues today as we remain close to groups like FAIR as they expose the truth about Irish Republican sectarian terrorism. The following is taken from FAIR’s book, “The True Story of South Armagh”

Republican terrorists were again to show that tolerance of a section of the community in South Armagh was and still is zero. On 1st September 1975 one of the worst atrocities was carried out at Tullyvallen Orange Hall one mile from the lrish border where five innocent men were cowardly cut down whilst carrying out an act of worship. These men were to be “lambs to the slaughter” as they had no protection and met on the same night every month for their lodge meeting a fact which would have been known by their Republican neighbours in South Armagh.

The killers entered the hall and began to fire indiscriminately cutting down all that stood in front of them. There was utter chaos as men dived for cover to try and save themselves from the psychopathic killers. Fortunately one member in the hall who was an off-duty member of the security forces had his gun and when he fired a shot the cowards then fled still firing through the windows leaving a trail of devastation behind.

All the men murdered in this attack were committed Christians and devout family men. They were highly respected local citizens with some aged over 70 and 80. Such was the thirst for blood that Republican gunmen tried to carry out another murderous attack at the same time. Gunmen were lying in wait to mount an attack on the funeral home of Corporal Robert Frazer who was murdered two nights before the Tullyvallen Massacre nearby by the IRA when they were spotted by the security forces but fled before they could be apprehended. This was the depths they were prepared to stoop in South Armagh when they were even prepared to visit a home already in grief to inflict further pain and suffering.

The local community has been numbed ever since this attack which was totally unjustified and the fear which emanated from this attack is still very evident today and has never been removed due to a continuation of the daily actions of Republicans in South Armagh. The hall today still stands as a terrible night and that the same may well occur in the future such is the sign of little change in the attitudes of those who carried out this attack. It did not take brave soldiers or courageous volunteers to carry out this attack but bloodthirsty, faceless, gutless and heartless. The only thing this attack succeeded in doing was to convince everyone as to the exact nature and objectives of what lrish Republicanism really stands for.

Accompanied by Wor Bro Alexander McFarland (Imperial Grand Secretary), Rt Wor Bro James Anderson (Imperial Grand Master) laid a wreath at the memorial garden in the grounds of Sloan’s House. Speaking after the event our Imperial Grand Master said
We thanks the organisers for the opportunity to be part of this solemn occasion. While it might suit some that the memory of those who were murdered be airbrushed out of history, we will see to it that their names are never forgotten.