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William Orr (1766 – 1797) was a member of the United Irishmen who was executed in 1797 in what was widely believed to be a judicial murder and whose memory led to the rallying cry “Remember Orr” during the 1798 rebellion.

Orr was born to a Presbyterian farming family outside Antrim town and little is known of his early life. He was active in the Irish Volunteers and joined the United Irishmen sometime in the mid-1790’s, contributing several articles to their newspaper, the Northern Star. He was compelled to go on the run to avoid imprisonment during the brutal “dragooning” of Ulster in 1797, a concerted attempt by the authorities to smash the United Irish movement. However, he was captured on 15 September 1797 when he slipped home to pay a visit to his dying father.

He was charged with administering the United Irish oath to two soldiers, an offence which had recently been deemed a capital charge under the Insurrection Act of 1796. It was widely believed that the evidence of the soldiers was fabricated and that the authorities wished to make an example of Orr to act as a deterrent to potential United Irish recruits. Despite packing the jury, the court had difficulties in convicting Orr as he was widely believed to be a scapegoat and innocent of the trumped up charges. Even the presiding judge, Yelverton, was said to have shed tears at the passing of the death sentence, although Orr’s friend, the poet and United Irishman William Drennan expressed his disgust at this display with the words “I hate those Yelvertonian tears”.

Orr was hanged on October 14 1797 in Carrickfergus and is regarded as the first United Irish martyr.