THE IRISH CONNECTION
This Short Talk Bulletin has been adapted from remarks given at
the 200th Anniversary of Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. We thank
R.W. Bro. R.W. Bro. Michael W. Walker Grand Secretary
Grand Lodge of Ireland for permitting us to share them with his
American Brethren.
The Grand Lodge of Ireland was five years old, at least, when
the first record exists of a Time Immemorial Lodge--St. John's
Lodge-in Philadelphia. This was, of course, followed by the
first Regular Warranted Lodge in America, three years later, in
Boston. I say the Grand Lodge of Ireland was at least five years
old in 1730, because we date our Constitution from the first
record, in 1725, of a Grand Lodge Meeting ''June 26th, St. John's
Day: More than '100 gentlemen ' met in the 'Yellow Lion in
Warbrough Street' and later went to King's Arms. The procession
included 'the Masters and Wardens of the Six Lodges of Gentlemen
Freemasons, who are under the jurisdiction of the Grand Master,
and the Private Brothers, all in coaches' (it being a very rainy
day). A new Grand Master, Rt. Hon. the Earl of Ross was elected.
After a meal they went to a play. " Clearly, therefore, Grand
Lodge was in earlier existence though we cannot say exactly
when, or challenge the claim of our much larger Sister Grand
Lodge that she is the Mother Grand Lodge. There are, of course,
records of Time Immemorial Lodges going back much earlier in
Ireland. The first definite clue we have is that when Ball's
Bridge was being rebuilt in Limerick in 1830, a brass square was
recovered from the foundations on which is engraved ''I will
strive to live with Love and Care, Upon Ye Level By Ye Square,
1507''. We are, therefore, within sight of a 500th Anniversary of
Speculative Masonry .
In Ireland we have evidence of skilled Operative Masons very
far back in time. We can state with pride that Irish Freemasons
were involved before "Warranted Masonry", and subsequently, in
promoting and developing the Craft in, what were then styled,
"The Colonies". Irish Lodges were warranted in many "British"
Regiments, though often mainly manned by Irishmen. The 1st Irish
or Blue Horse, later the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards had its
Warrant issued by Grand Lodge on 24th June, 1758. This Warrant is
still held in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and the Lodge is
working in West Germany, where the Regiment is stationed as
part of the NATO Defence Forces. This is our last truly
Travelling Warrant which remains of 185 Warrants issued in
Artillery, Cavalry and Foot Regiments of the Line, as well as 43
Warrants in Irish Militia and Fencible Regiments. Our only other
survivor, Glittering Star Lodge No. 322 originally warranted in
the 29th Foot in the following year, 1759, was working in
Boston in 1765 where on St. John's Day, December 27th, 1769, it
helped form the "Ancient" Grand Lodge of that State, and some
years later it was in Quebec. These contacts, no doubt later on
when the Regiments moved away, led to applications for Regular
Warrants from the local Freemasons, made in those Lodges, who
were left behind; and so the Craft spread.
In the years between the early 1730's and the eventual, and
inevitable, War of Independence, many of the leading and
influential Colonists became Members of the Order so that the
history of the gaining of Independence and the Craft is
inextricably entwined. We must not, however, fall into the trap
of imputing a revolutionary or political aspect to Freemasonry
because of this. So many of our detractors make the basic and
elementary mistake of correlating a man's, or a group's, actions
to membership of the Order, when that is coincidental and the
same things would have been done or said in, or out of, the
Order.
A focal point of the early part of that period must be the
granting by Henry Price, in Boston, of the Deputation or Charter
applied for on November 28th, 1734, by Benjamin Franklin, when he
was appointed Provincial Grand Master for Pennsylvania on
February 24th, 1735, barely three months later. So many great
names are remembered by us from that period, to which distance
lends enchantment: Henry Price; George Washington--elected Master
in 1788, if my information is correct, in a Lodge at Alexandria
in Virginia, though still under a warrant from Pennsylvania;
Benjamin Franklin, who probably did more than any other to
establish Freemasonry in America and whose reprint of Anderson's
Constitutions was the first, and is the rarest, Masonic book in
America; Paul Revere, the silversmith, whose romantic ride from
Boston to Lexington warned of the approach of Crown Forces--this
has been immortalized by Longfellow; and the gallant and romantic
action of Major General Joseph Warren of the Colonial Forces, and
Grand Master of Massachusetts, who, having declined to assume
command, picked up a musket and tragically fell at Bunker Hill;
John Paul Jones, father of Continental Navy; the Marquis de
Lafayette; not to mention the Brethren who signed the Declaration
of Independence, and many more.
A famous Brother and Commander in Chief, George Washington, was
initiated in Fredericksburg on November 4th, 1752. Another famous
Brother and Soldier, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington was
initiated 38 years later in our Lodge No. 494 at Trim, in the
Royal County of Meath. Some 25 years later, at Waterloo, he
finally routed his old enemy Napoleon, himself not a Freemason,
to the best of our knowledge, though a promoter of the Craft and
whose brothers and most of his Marshals were. Wellington's
elder Brother, Richard, 2nd Earl of Mornington, later Marquees of
Wellesley, was our Grand Master in 1782 as his father Garrett,
the 1st Earl of Mornington, had been in 1776.
We Freemasons of the Old World were with you in those days to
help kindle a flame which has spread throughout America in the
intervening years to become the great institution it is to-
day. I know that many Grand Lodges are suffering a reduction in
numbers, but we must never be seduced into an acceptance of the
attitude "never mind the quality, feel the width!" In the first
half of this century there were few competitors for the
membership of those whose minds and spirits felt the need for
some philosophical inspiration--now they are legion. We have come
back now after the seed, which we may have helped to plant some
250 years ago, germinated, grew, became mature and branched out
on its own 200 years ago like all sons and daughters to take
control of their own destiny.
We had our links with you then--the First Volume of the History
of Grand Lodge of Ireland says, in the section on Irish Masons
Abroad, "Fortunately we have learnt from many other sources, that
the issue of Warrants was the very least of the services rendered
by Irish Masons in spreading the Craft in the New World, and, we
can claim with justice, that these Brethren bore a considerable
share in founding some of the greatest and most highly reputed
Grand Lodges in the United States.
The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania we may almost claim as a child.
Leaving aside the obscure early Masonic History of this State,
when it would appear that English and Irish Masons held meetings
by Time Immemorial right, the foundation, in 1759, of the
Provincial Grand Lodge after the Antient forms, which
subsequently budded into the Independent Grand Lodge, ''was
primarily due to an Irish Mason who had been made in a Belfast
Lodge. '' I regret the author does not elucidate further and I am
not sure to whom he refers, or the Lodge in question, but I bow
to his erudition. You may or may not agree according to your
point of view, but ties there certainly were. Springett Penn, great grandson of
Admiral Penn, and grandson of the Founder of your State, apart from owning an
extensive property in Pennsylvania also had an estate at Shanagarry in County Cork; his
father, grandfather and great grandfather having been landlords
before him. He was an ardent Freemason and was Deputy Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of Munster in 1726/27 before its
amalgamation with the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1731. It is not
improbable that he encouraged Brethren from Cork to colonize on
his Pennsylvania estates. For instance, in 1734, in Benjamin
Franklin's Account Book which he began on July 4th, 1730, appears
an entry ''Mr. Newinham Dr. for Bindg. of a Mason Book gilt 4/=
". The old and distinguished Newenham family still thrives a
bare 10 miles from Shanagarry as the crow flies, and several of
whose members are Brethren of our Lodge No. 1, the "First Lodge
of Ireland", which had been a Time Immemorial Lodge before Grand
Lodge was constituted. I wonder is there a link there? It does
seem likely.
Incidentally, on October 9th, 1735, the Pennsylvania Gazette
had a notice of a meeting of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and
previously on May 13th, 1731, referred to a Masonic meeting in
Dublin; and similarly again on May 1st, 1732, a year later.
Freemasonry has waxed and waned, been popular and unpopular,
been promoted and persecuted, but it has survived. Freemasonry
made errors such as the political intrigues and anti-clerical
activities of some European Grand Lodges in the 18th and 19th
centuries, but today I believe that Regular Freemasonry is back
on its correct course worldwide, endeavoring to create in
Anderson's words ''a bond of union amongst those who would
otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance"--a brotherhood
of man under the fatherhood of God.
I leave you with a few words of Irish: ''Co m'beannaigh Dhia
dibh, go n'eiri an t-adh is an bothar libh, agus go m'beirimidh
beo ar an am seo aris"--which translates as ''God bless you, may
your good fortune increase and your way be made easy, and may we
all be alive this time next year''.
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