WHILE Tony Blair has become used to facing heavy criticism from a range of sources during his lengthy and contentious public career, arguably the most bitter personal attack he ever encountered involved the Orange Order, and took place even before he became UK prime minister.

Three decades ago this year, when Blair was only starting to come to prominence as leader of the opposition at Westminster, the Belfast Orange grand master, Robert Saulters, was enraged not by his policies but by the fact that his wife, Cherie Booth, was a Catholic.

Saulters, who was elected as overall head of the Orange institution later that year, said that Blair had “...sold his birthright by marrying a Romanist and serving Communion in a Roman Catholic church. He would sell his soul to the devil himself. He is not loyal to his religion. He is a turncoat. The future looks bleak.”

It was a grossly offensive intervention at every level, and, having met Booth with Blair at a couple of Downing Street receptions, I can confirm that, rather than trying to influence Irish developments, it was an area in which she had little obvious interest.

Saulters was the most prominent Orange official of his day, leading the organisation for 14 years, including during the height of the notorious Drumcree protests in Co Armagh, and also once signed........

© The Irish News