July the 12th is ‘Orange’ Day, celebrated still with a particular fervour in Northern Ireland, commemorating the defeat of the Catholic Stuart King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland by the forces of the Dutch and Protestant William of Orange (a region in Holland) and his wife, Mary, who was also his cousin and James’ daughter, who had been raised Protestant. The battle took place near the Boyne River in Ireland, outside the town of the Drogheda, on the north-east coast, and has been celebrated ever since as the definitive defeat of Catholic monarchy, and ‘Papism’ in
