On the morning of Wednesday 11th March fourteen of the brethren of The Lodge of Dawn, plus two guests from the Lodge of Fidelity No. 289 and one from Zetland Lodge No. 1311, awoke to alarms set for stupid o’clock and headed to Leeds Bradford airport for a long-planned two-day trip to Dublin to visit Ireland’s capital city. The trip included a visit to the HQ of Irish Freemasonry – the Grand Lodge of Ireland on Molesworth Street, a ceremony with Leinster Lodge No. 141 and many of the tourist attractions that Dublin offers.
After arriving at Buswells Hotel, conveniently situated opposite Grand Lodge, the assembled brethren tucked into a hearty breakfast, featuring wonderfully attentive waitress service – a service encountered at both breakfasts. Following a tour around Dublin’s Freemasons Hall on Molesworth Street, the intrepid explorers, now hungry again, made their way to Dublin’s famed Temple Bar to the famous Gallagher’s Boxty House. The restaurant serves original and authentic three types of Boxty, found in the border counties of Leitrim, Cavan and Fermanagh. In addition, they brew their own beers, as the brethren found out.
Following a hearty lunch, the party were given the benefit of a history lesson covering the past and present of Trinity College Dublin from Worshipful Brother Robert Phillips, Master of The Lodge of Dawn, after which some members of the group retired to the hotel, whilst others sampled the delights of the elegant art nouveau bar, Café en Seine. The evening commenced with pre-ceremony drinks in the bar at Grand Lodge and after an abridged ceremony, a filling buffet Festive Board was topped off with an elongated night cap in the Buswells Hotel Bar.
The following morning, Buswells’ breakfast and attentive waitressing didn’t disappoint and the day’s sight-seeing commenced with a tour around the rather odd ‘Little Museum of Dublin’ hosted by an even odder guide called Andrew. As the weather got colder the brave amongst the party took to the top deck of the open top bus tour whilst the more sensible sat downstairs. The first stop for the bus was the world-famous Guinness Storehouse. What was originally the brewing plant is now a fascinating tour and museum of all things Guinness, including a free drink of ‘the black stuff’. Lunch, with Guinness, and a quick stop at the Sky Bar, with Guinness, completed the visit. A brief stop at Dublin Castle preceded the last stop on the Hop-On-Hop-Off, The Jameson’s Distillery at Bow Street. The group were treated to a free tipple along with a history tour and ending with a tasting of three whiskeys.
The trip was completed with a quarter of an hour standing in pouring rain awaiting the airport shuttle bus to take us back to Dublin airport, finally arriving back at a cold and wet Leeds Bradford Airport before 11.00pm the day after we’d left so early the previous morning.
The pictures below tell ‘most’ of the story of the trip and give you a flavour of the time The Lodge of Dawn had in Dublin. Sláinte !
The Masonic visit to Dublin, the brainchild of our Worshipful Master and superbly organised by him, was a fantastic opportunity to experience the legendary Irish hospitality and ‘craic’ and is rightly already being considered one of the highlights of our many new, and not so new, members of their time in Freemasonry. The Lodge of Dawn hopes to reciprocate the warm welcome we received from our Irish brethren, and in addition will also be planning more ‘long distant’ Masonic trips in the near future.
Visiting other lodges is one of the highlights of Freemasonry. It is a major part of the social side of Freemasonry, giving everyone the opportunity to meet, and make new, friends and acquaintances as well as watching ‘same but different’ ceremonies. The Lodge of Dawn is very active in arranging lodge visits and you can read all about all of our most recent visits here.
If you are interested in joining The Lodge of Dawn please take a look here or simply drop us an email and we’ll get back to you asap.