AN organisation linked to an Orange hall in Co Antrim has been awarded more than £33,500 through lottery and Stormont grant schemes in less than 12 months.
Randalstown Ulster Scots Cultural Society is set to receive more than £8,500 from the Big Lottery Fund to help make improvements Randalstown Memorial Orange Hall.
There was controversy earlier this year when it emerged that the cultural society was awarded £25,000 by a contentious grants scheme operated by the Department for Communities (DfC).
Last month The Irish News revealed that Randalstown Cultural Awareness Association (RCAA), which is based at the hall, was also recently allocated £4,000 through a small grants scheme operated by the department.
The latest grant means that more than £37,500 of public and lottery cash has been claimed by groups based at the hall in less than a year.
Details emerged just days after officials at DfC claimed that "many faith based groups in Northern Ireland do not apply for lottery funds as this is regarded as benefitting from gambling".
While the Ulster Scots group may not be considered ‘faith based’ by the DfC, the Orange Order is.
Earlier this year The Irish News revealed that an address provided by Randalstown Ulster Scots Cultural Society was not listed on Royal Mail’s postal address file.
The order later said the cultural society “currently holds the lease for Randalstown Memorial Orange Hall”.
The Big Lottery Fund refused to reveal what address the cultural society provided, saying “that type of information is not normally released”.
The Ulster Scots Agency, which funds projects linked to its work, has previously said that it never “never provided Randalstown Ulster-Scots Cultural Society with any funding”.
The society was one of 90 organisations across the north to have been offered grants of up to £25,000 to renovate and upgrade halls under the DfC's Community Halls Pilot Programme.
The department has said the programme was designed to help groups that have “received limited/no previous investment from central/local government or lottery funding”.
It is understood the society applied for lottery funding in October last year.
SDLP assembly member John Dallat said: “This must be the best finished non-existing Orange hall in the whole of the north.
“It’s difficult how you can connect double glazing in an Orange hall to the promotion of Ulster Scots.”
A spokesman for the Orange Order declined to comment.
