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Speaking at the unfurling of a banner at Dromore, Co Down,
on Wednesday, 15 June 2005, Drew Nelson LLB, Grand Secretary
of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, accused the Rural Community
Network of institutional discrimination against the Orange
Order.
As part of the celebrations to mark the start of the 21st
Century the Millennium Commission developed a programme specifically
targeted at rural communities - the 21st Century Halls Programme.
The total funding given by the Millennium Commission for
the programme in Northern Ireland was £4.6 million,
of which £3.9 million was spent on capital works.
When this programme was originally devised the aim was to
benefit 100 rural halls.
However the Rural Community Network would not accept applications
from Orange Lodges.
This was institutional discrimination because in the rural
parts of Northern Ireland the vast majority of halls in Protestant
areas are Orange Halls.
The Orange Institution has recently conducted its own analysis
of where the money was spent for these 56 halls which shows
the following: -
29 halls in areas which are majority Roman Catholic.
21 halls in areas which are majority Protestant.
6 halls in areas which have no clear majority.
When this grant was announced a number of Orange Lodges made
enquiries about applying for the grant but their application
was stopped at an early stage because initial enquiries revealed
that Orange Lodges could not benefit from the grant.
It is the opinion of the Orange Order that a considerable
amount of funding was lost to the Protestant community because
of the way this scheme was administered by the Rural Community
Network.
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