West Belfast Orange Hall: History of loyal orders on display

Memorabilia from the Orange and Black institutions will go on display

The history of the Orange and Black institutions will go on public display when an orange hall in west Belfast opens its doors for the first time.

The Shankill Road building, built in 1898, is being turned into a museum.

Many of the items have come from Fernhill House which boasted the biggest collection of Orange memorabilia in the world.

Chairman of the hall, William Humphrey, said they wanted to show that the Orange Order was not a secret society.

"It's very important from our perspective that our identity isn't just pigeon-holed and made narrow, but it is actually a broad church and our identity is multi-layered," he said.

"And it's important that we get that message across and that's what we're about here in west Belfast - trying to reach out and let people see that the Orange institution isn't a secret society, it's an institution that's proud of its history and proud of its culture and it's something people should not be frightened of."