News

Community groups offered £100,000 for Orange hall work

DUP ministers Arlene Foster and Paul Givan with Billy Thompson of Orange Community Network at Salterstown Orange Hall at the launch of the Community Halls Pilot Programme
DUP ministers Arlene Foster and Paul Givan with Billy Thompson of Orange Community Network at Salterstown Orange Hall at the launch of the Community Halls Pilot Programme DUP ministers Arlene Foster and Paul Givan with Billy Thompson of Orange Community Network at Salterstown Orange Hall at the launch of the Community Halls Pilot Programme

FOUR more Orange halls are to benefit from £100,000 from a controversial grants scheme following applications by community groups, it has emerged.

Last week The Irish News revealed that five ‘cultural societies’ have been promised more than £100,000 for the upgrade of Orange Order properties through the Community Halls Pilot Programme.

The scheme, launched by DUP communities minister Paul Givan and former first minister Arlene Foster at an Orange hall last year, has been criticised by nationalists after dozens of loyal order and band halls were listed among the beneficiaries, but just two GAA clubs featured.

Ninety groups have been offered grants of up to £25,000 each through the programme, whose original budget of £500,000 quadrupled to £1.9m.

Applicants to the scheme must own a community hall or hold a long term lease and be the organisation responsible for operating it.

If the property is held in trust, trustees must consent to the proposed works.

The Irish News reported last month that an Orange hall in Randalstown, Co Antrim will benefit from £25,000 after an application from the Randalstown Ulster Scots Cultural Society.

The address provided was not listed by Royal Mail but was later said to be the address of Randalstown Orange Hall.

Examination of the list of grant recipients showed that four other Orange halls will also benefit from applications in the names of cultural, educational and historical societies.

It has now emerged that four community groups based in Co Armagh have been promised £25,000 each to carry out work at Orange halls.

The Department for Communities has also pledged another £25,000 to an Orange hall in Co Derry described as a "community hall".

The community groups are: Acton Rural Regeneration Group, for Acton Orange Hall, Poyntzpass; Churchill Community Development Association, for Loughgall Orange Hall; Kilmore Community Development, for Kilmore Orange Hall; and Ballylisk and Mullavilly Community Association, for another Orange Order property near Tandragee.

A fifth Orange hall, described as Cromie Memorial Community Hall in Portstewart, has also been offered the maximum £25,000 grant.

SDLP representative John Dallat has questioned why "surrogates" have been applying for government money instead of the Orange Order.

Asked why community and other groups have applied for grants for work on Orange halls, a spokesman for the order referred The Irish News to an open letter sent to the paper last week.

In the letter, the Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Edward Stevenson, said halls that received funding “clearly met the requirements of this scheme".

He said the "subleasing of premises to active community groups is not unusual and in many cases helps ensure the premises are better utilised and maintained than if it were solely for the use of an Orange lodge".

Mr Stevenson also said he would speak to police about the “potential of an increased level of attacks on our halls” due to stories published by The Irish News.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities said: “No difference was made on the basis of whether the applicant owned the hall or leased the hall.”