Orangemen Buy Boyne Soil

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Irish Voice News

Orangemen Buy Boyne Soil

June 28, 2007

By Paddy Clancy

LEADERS of the Orange Order are spearheading a scheme which could bring millions of dollars into Ireland from sales of orange lily bulbs packaged in soil from the site of the Battle of the Boyne.

Several Orange lodges and prominent individuals in the Order bought up 80% of the shares in a company, Shaderoe. That gave them control of 27 acres of fields at Drybridge, part of the Boyne battle site near Drogheda, Co. Louth.

Company directors include prominent Unionist peer Lord John Laird; David Mahon, grand master of the Orange Order in Donegal; and Stewart Griffith, a leader of Carricknahorna Orange Lodge near Cashelard in Co. Donegal, which once included in its membership the maternal grandfather of just-retired British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Shaderoe aims to market the lily bulbs across the world, but mainly in Canada where the Orange Order is strong, in the same way as entrepreneurs have packaged sods of Irish soil for sale to Irish-Americans.

Mahon told the Irish Voice that the 27 acres they already control will be used by picnickers visiting the Battle of the Boyne site. He added that Shaderoe intends purchasing another 500 acres with the intention of developing Orange lily bulbs for export.

Griffith, a soil expert, was recruited to work on a study to establish just how feasible is the proposed project.

Mahon, who will lead the Orange Order’s only annual parade in the Republic in Rossnowlagh on July 7, the last Saturday before The Twelfth, said, “We have established that there is great interest in Canada and other countries in the project.

“The idea is to package, say, a dozen lily bulbs and soil as genuine products of the Battle of the Boyne site and sell them abroad at around $130 a time. Individual lodges would produce packages and the marketing would be under the control of the Orange Order.”

He denied a British Sunday newspaper report that Shaderoe is in any way linked to shadowy figure Lorrain Esme Osman, a former bankrupt who spent some time in jail in England when awaiting extradition to Hong Kong on charges linked to a multi-million dollar finance scam.

But he agreed that one of the directors is another former bankrupt, English part-time journalist Kevin Cahill, listed on the Shaderoe file lodged with the Company Registration Office in Dublin by the Irish version of his name, Caoimhin Seamus O Cathail. Cahill is a friend of Lord Laird.

“There’s no stigma in having been a bankrupt. It’s happened many a good businessman. Mr. Cahill seems like a right fellow, a very pleasant chap,” Mahon said.

Meanwhile, a second “Love Ulster” march will take place in Dublin at a date to be determined August. Last year when the event was staged, riots broke out.

Organizer Willie Frazer of the Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR), said Gardai (police) had no problem with the event being staged again.

“As far as the parade goes, the guards are prepared to police it. Obviously there’s few concerns, they feel it’s a bit raw in the minds of the people,” he said.

“It would mean them mounting a major operation if we are to march in Dublin but they are prepared to do it.”

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