In 2016, a theological working group set up by the Church of Ireland was informed by the organisation's leadership that it had a membership of around 17,000, of whom around 16,000 lived in the British Isles.

The society is formed from Orangemen, who hold the Royal Arch Purple Degree, and can be seen as a progression of those Orders, although they are three separate institutions.

[citation needed] In 1931, on the day before a planned demonstration by members of the Royal Black Institution, crossing the border from Northern Ireland and into the then Irish Free State, the IRA occupied Cootehill in County Cavan, as a counter protest.

After loyalist bands defied a Parades Commission ruling on Black Saturday by playing music outside St Patrick's Catholic Church on Donegall Street, Belfast, the Royal Black Institution issued an apology to the clergy and parishioners of the church for any offence caused.

The parish priest, Father Michael Sheehan, welcomed the apology and "the sincere Christian spirit behind it".