Order outlines Covenant Centenary plans
Published Thursday, 06 October 2011
The Belfast Grand Orange Lodge has unveiled its plans to mark the centenary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant next year.
They have indicated that 2012 will be "a year of celebrations" for them - which will include two major parades.
The Covenant was signed by around half a million men and women in September 1912 in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill, with Sir Edward Carson being the first signatory of it.
To mark the centenary of the event the Belfast County Grand Orange Lodge will host a parade in May.
The orders will then come together in September to host a major demonstration.
County Grand Chaplain Rev Mervyn Gibson spoke at the event in Stormont to launch the plans and argued that the Covenant has real current historical significance.
"I would contest that had the Covenant not been written and subscribed too, we would not be standing in this Parliament building today, because there would have been no need for it in an Irish State.
"So we have much to celebrate in the Ulster Covenant, not just its content, but what it represents, as the birth certificate of Northern Ireland."