Brunswick Lodge 106 and the birth of Glasgow Orangeism

Contrary to some erstwhile historians and many others. The Orange Order did not arrive in Scotland with Irish immigration.

In 1797 the terrible Irish Rebellion against the British Crown broke out and sadly some Protestants were involved as Presbyterian's were not given adequate fairness. However those involved were to quickly re-think when they seen the pogroms against their co-religionists. Many rebel flags bore a black background, a cross and the inscription "MWS". This stood for "Murder without sin" as Protestants were regarded as heretics.. The Roman Catholic Church were more than sympathetic to the rebellion and and wished to stamp out Protestants across Ireland. The Orange Order had been founded in 1795 to defend the Protestant Constitution and grew rapidly. Many lodges formed Militia Units and fought alongside the army to put the rebels down.

General Lake admired the new Orangemen and on reviewing troops in  the north of Ireland also watched 20,000 Orangemen marching by. In many areas including deep in the south, where Protestants were less numerous and the army stretched, local Orange lodges did some heroic duty and stemmed much rebel action. Scots and English soldiers were so impressed with this new system that they were granted Travelling Warrants to allow them to form lodges when they returned to the mainland. Thus in 1798 these military warrants formed a lodge at Maybole, Ayrshire and Manchester in England.

In the city, the King William Tavern for a time became a centre for progress and loyalty. That first lodge, Brunswick LOL 106, met in splendid isolation and it was not until 1821 that they held the very first Orange Walk. This was from Nelson Street when the band with them struck up "God Save The King" then paraded with a large and appreciative crowd round the streets. The following year seen LOL 106 inviting lodges from the nearby rural places near them including  the adjacent village of Pollokshaws (now a city suburb). During Victorian times city philanthropists like Lord Blytheswood (square named after him), and Andrew McLellan (Art Gallery) were Orangemen as was the  "Mercury" newspaper editor who did much to instill and widen the Orange cause in the city

Brunswick LOL 106 therefore, is an important lodge in the Orange cause as it helped promote what is now the tremendous Orange presence in Scotland's greatest city. They were founding members of District 24 and was to remain there until that was absorbed elsewhere and they are still meeting to this day in Dennistoun Central Kirk under District 12 in the Dennistoun area on the east side of the city.

When the lodge parades today, one wonders what their forebears would think if they could see what has grown from those early beginnings?