Freemasons' Hall, Dublin, & The Grand Officers Of Ireland.

Freemasons' Hall , Dublin , & the Grand Officers of Ireland .

BY \ V . J . CHKTWODK CRAWI . EY , LL . D ., P . G . D ., AND G . SI-X . IXSTR . IRKLAXD

LI Kit the Gnmcl Lodge of England , the Gntnd Lodge of Ireland in its early days was fain to make use of the Halls of Metropolitan Guilds and Taverns in which to hold its meetings and stated communications . The earliest meeting-place of the Grand Lodge of Ireland , or , at least , the earliest hall in which we can prove its Annual

Communication for the Installation of Officers to have been held was the Great Hall of the King ' s Inns . This Hall stood on the site of the present High Court of Judicature , locally known as the Four Courts , Dublin . In this Great Hall , the Grand Lodge of Ireland met on St . John ' s Day in Summer ( 24 th June ) 1725 and elected the Grand Officers for the

, , ensuing year . Be it noted , that all our Grand Officers in Ireland , with the exception of the Deputy Grand Master , are , and always have been , elected by Grand Lodge . Our usuage in this respect has been unbroken from 1725 to the present year of grace . The system works well—exceedingly well with us . Grand Office is highly valued and sparingly

bestowed . Efficient Grand Officers are re-elected year after year . There are onl y eighteen Past Grand Officers of Ireland , all told . Reverting to the quaint words of the chronicler of 1725 , ¦ " after performing the Mystic Ceremonies of the Grand Lodge , which are held so sacred that they must not be

discovered to a private Brother , they proceeded to the election of a New Grand Master , & c . " It is worth remarking that , in one particular , the Brethren of 1725 set a precedent for the Brethren of 1900 . At the meeting in the Great Hall of the Kings' Inns , the Right Hon . Sir Thomas Prendergast , M . P ., was elected Senior Grand Warden of Ireland . Sir

Thomas was elected Junior Grand Warden of England at the next ensuing St . John's Day in Winter , and served as Gntnd Warden in both Grand Lodges concurrently . To-day , History has repeated itself . The Right Hon . Viscount Templetown , Senior Grand Warden of Ireland , has been appointed Senior Grand Warden of England , and is serving both Offices concurrently .

As we go down the stream of time , we iind the Grand Lodge of Ireland meeting in the Guildhall of the Smiths ; in the Philharmonic Rooms ( where Handel's Messiah was first produced ); in the Guildhall of the Merchant Taylors ; and in the Cit y Assembly Rooms . Taylors' Hall sheltered Grand Lodge till well into the present century ; until , indeed , the

shifting of the fashionable quarters left it hopelessly out of reach as an habitual meeting-place . It would make an amusing list , if one were to catalogue all the Taverns , with their droll signs , that have harboured the Fraternity in London and Dublin . With us , the Eagle Tavern , just outside the Castle gatesin the very heart of the

, City , as the Earl of Ross and Dean Swift knew it , played much the same part as was played in London by the Devil Tavern at Temple Bar . Then we had a miscellaneous crowd , the Cock and the Bear , the Plume of Feathers and the Golden Anchor , the Hoop and the Bull's Head , escorted by the most variegated pack of Lions that ever ranged over the

Sahara of a Herald ' s imagination . It w ; ts not till well on in the present century that the Grand Lodge of Ireland held premises for its exclusive use . As had been the practice in England , till Freemasons' Hall was built , the Grand Secretary , or Deputy Grand Secretary , as the case might be , transacted his business at his private residence or office . Efforts had been made to found a

Freemasons' Hall in Dublin—but that is another story . The lirst set of rooms retained exclusivel y for the use of the Society in Dublin was the upper Hat of the Chamber of Commerce , a commodious edifice , of some architectural pretension , that had been erected by the Merchants of Dublin as soon as the suppression of the rebellion of 179 8 had given

them time to look about them . The accommodation was adequate to the needs of the time , and there the Fraternity dwelt till the present Freemasons' Hall was built and opened in 186 9 . The present Freemasons' Hall , Molesworth Street , Dublin , is undergoing reconstructionand the internal aspect of the

, building represented in the accompanying photographs will be considerably modified when the alterations are complete . By one of those undesigned coincidences that tire always happening , both the Grand Lodge of England and Ireland resolved , much about the same time , to renovate , reconstruct , and enlarge their premises . The task of the Dublin Brethren

is now nearly complete , though the outlay has already greatly exceeded the original estimate . In this respect , Freemasons ' Hall , Dublin , forms no exception to the rule . There is no instance recorded in Profane History , or for the matter of

that , in Scripture Story , in which an edifice was completed within the Architect ' s sanguine estimate . In the present case , the Dublin Craft will esteem themselves fortunate if any balance remains out of the £ 10 , 000 or so , available for the purpose . As may be surmised from the expenditure , the additions and alterations are very extensive , involving almost

an entire re-distribution or allocation of the existing rooms and structural additions more than equal in cost to the original building . Without a ground plan it is difficult to give an intelligible description of the complex premises occupied by the block known as Freemasons' Hall , Dublin . Butlooking at the

, accompanying photograph of the front , the observer may take it tliat the ground floor is occupied by the Grand Secretary's Office with its appendages , the Board Room , and the working departments of our wide-spread Society . The second floor is occupied by the Royal Arch and the Mark , and bv smaller lodge rooms , while the top floor is given up

to the Templar Body and to the ancient and accepted Kite . At the rear , and approached by a long corridor from the main entrance , lie the Banquet Hall , the lesser dining-rooms and their appurtenances , which include extensive kitchens in the basement . Our Irish Brethren are given to hospitality , and , for various reasons , the Dublin lodges like to dine

" At home , " on their own premises . On a level with the first floor of the main building , is the Grand Lodge Room , with its lobbies , ante-rooms , and Tyler ' s rooms . The Hall is of line proportions , being much the same in cubical contents as the Grand Lodge Room in Great Queen Street . It is nearly seventy-live feet long by forty

feet wide , with a coved ceiling thirty-two feet high to the cornice . We give two illustrations—one looking to the west from the Grand Officers' dais , the other looking to the east from the porch . The coved compartments of the ceiling are decorated with admirable frescoes , depicting scenes from the Building of the Temple of Jerusalem . On each side of the Hall , in the intervals between

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