Former Blackman John Coulter vents his anger at the release of Inside the Royal Black Institution. His response is crude and lacking in any objectivity.

The recent release of the explosive Black book Inside the Royal Black Institution has rocked the Royal Black Institution to the core and driven its usually enthusiastic PR representatives into the trenches.

Anyone familiar with the Loyal Orders PR efforts over this past few years will know that their spokesmen are never slow at responding to negative publicity. These skilled Loyal Orders spin doctors, who are expert at lauding the supposed spiritual credentials and charitable activities of these organisations, have suddenly become shy and backward. In fact, they have frantically constructed a thick wall of secrecy around their procedures. Those that have read the revealing content of Inside the Royal Black Institution will understand why such a hasty decision was made. The reason is the very survival of the Royal Black is at stake. The tactic of the Black leaders is to keep silent and hope that the growing storm quickly flies over. This, they hope, would allow them to continue to parade themselves as a Christian, Protestant, biblical and even evangelical Order. They have always contented themselves in the fact that most Ulster Protestants (mistakenly) consider them as an honourable and Christian Order. This is an image the Black spin-doctors are keen to maintain. Whilst the Royal Black Institution has understandable (and deliberately) ordered its members to keep a strict vow of secrecy (at the pain of facing the same fate that befell Judas Iscariot), as its unsavoury secrets have come out into the public domain, their frustration and anger has been rising behind the scenes to boiling point. Blackmen cannot discuss the mysteries, secrets and rites of their underground Order publicly. They are bound by a serious death threat to their welfare should they reveal any details of their dark order. They are warned: “the ancient custom of our Order teaches us that he who would betray his trust deserves no better fate than that which befell Judas Iscariot.” A former Blackman John Coulter has recently vented his anger in the Irish Daily Star (30th November 2009), however he notably fails to address one single point exposed in the book. He skips round every single biblical argument in the book and negates to explain the reason why this so-called Protestant Order uses human body parts in its meetings to reinforce it teaching. He is more interested in what Republicans will think than the harm that it is doing to Blackmen, the Gospel, the name of Christ and Ulster Protestantism. This is the classic response of Loyal Orders members when faced with plain truth. They customarily try to divert away from the actual key issues. Here is his critique:

“Don’t believe Black book’s devilish tale

Republicans can speed up the process of a united Ireland by putting the boot in the Black! When the 2010 loyalist marching season kicks off, nationalists should go head to head with the Royal Black Institution, the Protestant Loyal Orders’ senior member. If nationalists can ‘Break the Black’, they will sever the political spinal cord which binds middle class religious Protestantism to the various Unionist parties. To do this, every republican needs to digest the best piece of anti-Protestant propaganda since the notorious Proclamation of the 1916 Easter Rising. It’s a book entitled Inside the Royal Black Institution by author Paul Malcomson, a former member of the Orange Order, Black Order and Royal Arch Purple Order. Since the 1980s, republicans have largely targeted Orange parades, forcing the Order to re-model itself as an Orangefest community organisation. This has caused a massive split between trendy festival modernisers and fundamentalist hardliners in the Orange Reformation movement. But to really back Unionism into a political corner, republicanism needs to outgun Northern Protestantism’s underlying backbone – the Black. There’s no use republicans trying to portray the Black as another Protestant version of the Ku Klux Klan. That was the tactic they successfully used against the Orange. Because of the Black’s even closer ties with Protestant churches, Klan comparisons will only get the Black’s heckles up and rally Protestant opinion behind it. Instead, they need to recite the claims made by Malcomson that the Black is a Masonic-style, anti-Christian movement which has more in common with witchcraft and devil worship than the Bible which the Black boasts it defends.Malcomson does a detailed analysis of the 11 ‘degrees’ which a Black member must take to become a fully qualified Sir Knight. Reading his work will give every nationalist all the information at their fingertips to brand the Black as a sinister satanic cult. Malcomson claims to publicly unmask Black mysteries, secrets and rites for the first time in history. His killer punch comes in the line: “Any Christian owning such regalia should destroy them.” For republicans, this book is a God send. For any sane Protestant, especially those in the Black, this book is a load of deeply offensive balls. I was in the Black for two decades. I left, not for any Biblical reasons, but because I needed time to care for my severely autistic son. As a journalist, I covered many Black ceremonies, reported on numerous traditional Black Saturday August parades, and met countless Sir Knights from across the globe including Togo, Ghana, Canada and New Zealand – but there was no sign of satan! Getting my own 11th degree, known as the Red Cross, was one of the most Christian rites I have ever attended. My father served a three-year term as the Black’s Assistant Sovereign Grand Master. Our family is steeped in the Black – and none of us are devil worshippers! Malcomson claims he was a member of the Black. I don’t know what Black he was in, but his book presents a totally different organisation to the Christian movement I belonged to. For republicans determined to gain an electoral advantage by manipulating the Black into the same corner as the Orange, they should file Malcomson’s easy-to-read book under M – for Must Memorise. I would prefer to file it in my study under T – that’s T for Total Crap. Still, I look on the bright side of Malcomson’s book. If there are power cuts this winter, at least I have something substantial to light the fire with.”

Newspaper articles relating to Evangelical Truth 

Irish News – Man lifts lid on secrets of Arch Purple Order The Observer – Satanic secrets of the Orange Order Irish News – Order denies links with loyalist group Belfast Telegraph – Inside the Royal Arch Purple Order The New Zealand Herald – Orange Order ‘pagan’ rites under attack! Sunday World – Weirdo Order exposed by member Irish Independent –  Flagging Freemasons secret society admits RTE cameras in desperate bid to recruit Irish News – Twelfth parades – tourist attraction or sad travesty? Belfast Newsletter – Northern Ireland’s loyal orders ‘mirror freemasonry’ Irish News  – Secrets of Royal Black Institution revealed Irish News columnist Roy Garland  – “Fundamentalists, not Jesuits, infiltrated the loyal orders” Irish Daily Star columnist  John Coulter – The best piece of anti-Protestant propaganda since the notorious Proclamation of the 1916 Easter Rising Sunday World – New Book Exposes Black Banbridge Chronicle – Macabre rituals detailed in book (Black Response) (Evangelical Truth response) Lisburn Star – Local author embraced for controversy over book on Royal Black institution Newry Democrat – Oaths in some groups require candidates to conceal other members’ secrets, says author