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The famine had a much greater effect than it should due to a long history of economic and military oppression, and those combined caused the immigration. Not the famine on it's own.
It's hardly surprising that returning soldiers familiar with this history would be paranoid when they started to be outnumbered by those fleeing the situation in Ireland.
It just didn't make sense that people fleeing the famine would set up Orange Lodges. Which was how it read. I wasn't aware of this history in Liverpool and Scotland.
The soldier's thing I think comes from orange order historians. Its growth occurred in the 19th century, most notably in Scotland. Economic migration of Irish protestants. The lodge has and had a distinct Irish focus.
It gave Irish protestants migrating to work in cities a distinct sense of identity. Never fully endorsed by the Scottish establishment.
Paranoia about mixed marriages, immigration, education, and the breakdown of society. It's thought its big period of growth occurred between the wars, period of austerity, and mass unemployment (it was offering a particular solution based on the fear of catholic immigration which it increasingly viewed as tied to the communist menace).
It started life as a secret society run by the Irish Church and Anglo/ Irish landowners. But by the time it grows, it's a very different organization, largely working-class and Conservative-leaning.
Really the result of successive waves of Irish Protestant migration to Scotland for economic reasons and the desire to maintain a distinct cultural and political identity.
Although you can see why a Conservative-leaning organization would not describe itself in these terms.
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