2026/06/29 by Philip Arneill · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Irish and British Studies #Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation #Religious Tourism and Spaces
paper · doi:10.14324/111.444.amps.2026v34i1.001
openalex publication_date 2026/06/29 · openalex created_date 2026/06/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/30
Despite the 700 Orange Halls that currently exist across the historic province of Ulster, a search for ‘Orange Hall’ on the Northern Ireland Department for Communities ‘Heritage at Risk’ website yields a mere 4 results. These traditional meeting places for the fraternal religious organisation known as the Orange Order dot the landscape, and while some are proudly proclaimed, the majority are alternatively hidden in plain sight, fortified to the point of impenetrability, or falling into disuse and disrepair. The gradual decline of the Orange Order is symbolic of irreversible advances towards a more inclusive society. Its buildings, to those who maintain and protect them against the flow of secularisation and demographic shifts, are a material expression of the importance of resisting change and preserving heritage. To others, they are symbolic of historic oppression and inequality, and their demise is perhaps welcome. This paper uses images from my current research, I Am Where I Am Not, to explore the buildings photographically and autoethnographically and examine these contested spaces in post-conflict (Northern) Ireland that challenge any definition of heritage as necessarily benign and something to be unquestioningly preserved. Drawing on a visual methodology that incorporates Charlotte Cotton’s concept of the deadpan aesthetic and using the unique example of Newfoundland’s Orange Halls as a counterpoint, this paper examines how these heritage sites are not only emblematic of the past and present, but also of possible futures – should they be deemed a heritage even worthy of preservation.