About Philip Orr
Philip Orr works currently as a counsellor in Hertfordshire although his links with his native Ulster are still strong. He has been a teacher, a community development practitioner and writer. He was chair of Mediation Northern Ireland for a period. Philip has penned a number of books and articles relating to Irish involvement in the First World War, and its ongoing significance in Unionist culture. He is interested in the way that Evangelical Protestant culture shaped his own upbringing and that of others.
“…if you you use the word colonialism in an Irish or Northern Irish context, it, yeah, can become a a kind of a stick in order to beat certain facets of Unionist culture which do still preserve strong memories of empire. And I’m thinking, for example of the Black Institution part of the Orange family. On those banners you will regularly see - as indeed on some Orange banners – paintings and imagery that reflect with some favour on the period of empire, the famous one being ... a replica of the famous painting called The Secret of England’s Greatness, in which a native prince bows before Queen Victoria and before an open bible.”
In Conversation with Philip Orr
Near the Pickie Pool
Philip Orr
He sat with the crowd near the Pickie Pool
For an outdoor meeting of the Missionary Convention
With the Blackhead lighthouse twinkling
At the head of the lough and the Liverpool boat
Making off in the dusk towards mystery.
A blind, grey missionary, shown to
The crackling microphone, spoke of heathen
Still un-reached in Africa, covered in rags,
Sleeping in wooden huts under the stars -
Poor sinners in need of a work of grace.
‘Young men, the Holy Spirit waits to carry you
Out beyond our bless-ed Irish home of faith.
Remember Jesus’ great commission -
Preach the good news to all the earth’.
He heard the old man speak, transfixed.
In the halcyon 1890s, that man had climbed
Up Kilimanjaro to place his mother’s Bible there
And claim a continent for faith, before
Descending to the British mission school
To offer medicine and lessons for all who came.
As heads were bowed for the final prayer
And a call went out for one Christian gentleman
To hear God’s voice and answer with a ‘Yes’,
He rose as the tears rolled down his cheek,
And lifted his hand in a pledge of faith.
After the year he spent in London, training,
He died of asthma on the steamer out,
Buried at sea with a Bible in his coffin, sunk
Where the Empire’s shipping lanes still stretched
Like a net sent out to catch the earth.
These words are Philip Orr’s. To share your own words or images, please contact us.