Thomas Sloan
Encyclopedia
Thomas Henry Sloan was an Irish and British politician and founder of the Independent Orange Order
. He represented the Belfast South
constituency as an Independent Unionist at the Westminster parliament from 1902 to 1910.
Sloan first came to attention as a supporter of the working class evangelical Protestant preacher Arthur Trew, and soon became a leading member of his Belfast Protestant Association
. In 1901, Trew was sentenced to twelve months' hard labour after he incited an anti-Catholic riot, and Sloan took over his Sunday afternoon speeches on the steps of Belfast Customs House. Trew's imprisonment had increased interest, and Sloan was a superior speaker and organiser, and managed to secure his election at the Belfast South by-election, 1902, against the official unionist candidate.
In 1903, Sloan founded the Independent Orange Order. Soon after, he reached an agreement with the Irish Unionist Party
and disassociated himself from the Belfast Protestant Association.
Independent Orange Order
The Independent Loyal Orange Institution is an off-shoot of the Orange Institution, a Protestant fraternal organisation based in Northern Ireland.-Foundation:...
. He represented the Belfast South
Belfast South (UK Parliament constituency)
Belfast South is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.-Boundaries:The seat was created in 1922 when, as part of the establishment of the devolved Stormont Parliament for Northern Ireland, the number of MPs in the Westminster Parliament was drastically cut...
constituency as an Independent Unionist at the Westminster parliament from 1902 to 1910.
Sloan first came to attention as a supporter of the working class evangelical Protestant preacher Arthur Trew, and soon became a leading member of his Belfast Protestant Association
Belfast Protestant Association
The Belfast Protestant Association was a populist evangelical political movement in the early 20th-century.The Association was founded in the last years of the 19th-century by Arthur Trew, a former shipyard worker, who had become an evangelical Protestant preacher and made fiercely anti-Catholic...
. In 1901, Trew was sentenced to twelve months' hard labour after he incited an anti-Catholic riot, and Sloan took over his Sunday afternoon speeches on the steps of Belfast Customs House. Trew's imprisonment had increased interest, and Sloan was a superior speaker and organiser, and managed to secure his election at the Belfast South by-election, 1902, against the official unionist candidate.
In 1903, Sloan founded the Independent Orange Order. Soon after, he reached an agreement with the Irish Unionist Party
Irish Unionist Party
The Irish Unionist Alliance was a Unionist party founded in Ireland in 1891 to oppose plans for Gladstonian and Parnellite Home Rule for Ireland. The party was led for much of its life by Colonel Edward James Saunderson and later by the William St John Brodrick, Earl of Midleton...
and disassociated himself from the Belfast Protestant Association.