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Article BAAL'S BRIDGE, LIMERICK. Page 1 of 1
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Baal's Bridge, Limerick.
BAAL'S BRIDGE , LIMERICK .
C With an Illustration . J THE drawing , * which faces this article , represents the obverse and reverse of a Masonic square , which was discovered in excavating the foundations of Baal's Bridge , in the city of Limerick , in November 1830 . It was dug out of the eastern corner of the foundation of the northern land p ier
on the King ' s Island or English Town side of the river Shannon , where the abutment of the new bridge now stands . It passed immediately into the possession of Bro . James Pair ^ , R . A . and P . G . A . ; and we understand it is now in that of Bro . Michael Furnell , of Caher Ell y Castle , in the county of Limerick .
We are told b y Ferrar ,-f- in his " History of Limerick , " that the year in which Baal's Bridge was built has never been ascertained . "It is part of the estate of the Earl of Shannon , and is certainl y a matter of surprise that any bridge should be included in a grant or patent , and thereby
g ive the proprietor a liberty to let a part of it for the purpose of building houses . The bridge was scarcel y passable until the houses on the eastern side of it were purchased b y Parliament and thrown down . " If our author be correct in giving such great antiquity to the bridge in question , what explanation are we to g ive for
the date , " 1517 , " which is engraved upon the Masonic square , of which we g ive a drawing ? The onl y way that we can possibl y account for it is , that the square was laid there during some repairs at that date , for the bridge seems to have suffered much from floods . From the same author we learn that , in the year 1705 during " a storm , which lasted
, from ten o ' clock at night to ei g ht in the morning , the tide covered half of Thomond ' s Bridge , and forced up part of Baal ' s Bridge ; " and again , in 1775 , " a hi g h tide forced away part of Baal ' s Bridge , and several of the houses fell down , by which the bridge was rendered impassable for several weeks . Mr . Berry , sitting in his room on the bridge , the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Baal's Bridge, Limerick.
BAAL'S BRIDGE , LIMERICK .
C With an Illustration . J THE drawing , * which faces this article , represents the obverse and reverse of a Masonic square , which was discovered in excavating the foundations of Baal's Bridge , in the city of Limerick , in November 1830 . It was dug out of the eastern corner of the foundation of the northern land p ier
on the King ' s Island or English Town side of the river Shannon , where the abutment of the new bridge now stands . It passed immediately into the possession of Bro . James Pair ^ , R . A . and P . G . A . ; and we understand it is now in that of Bro . Michael Furnell , of Caher Ell y Castle , in the county of Limerick .
We are told b y Ferrar ,-f- in his " History of Limerick , " that the year in which Baal's Bridge was built has never been ascertained . "It is part of the estate of the Earl of Shannon , and is certainl y a matter of surprise that any bridge should be included in a grant or patent , and thereby
g ive the proprietor a liberty to let a part of it for the purpose of building houses . The bridge was scarcel y passable until the houses on the eastern side of it were purchased b y Parliament and thrown down . " If our author be correct in giving such great antiquity to the bridge in question , what explanation are we to g ive for
the date , " 1517 , " which is engraved upon the Masonic square , of which we g ive a drawing ? The onl y way that we can possibl y account for it is , that the square was laid there during some repairs at that date , for the bridge seems to have suffered much from floods . From the same author we learn that , in the year 1705 during " a storm , which lasted
, from ten o ' clock at night to ei g ht in the morning , the tide covered half of Thomond ' s Bridge , and forced up part of Baal ' s Bridge ; " and again , in 1775 , " a hi g h tide forced away part of Baal ' s Bridge , and several of the houses fell down , by which the bridge was rendered impassable for several weeks . Mr . Berry , sitting in his room on the bridge , the