Galway Advertiser – February 14, 2002

 

Old Galway

Galway of the Tribes

The Catholic Freemasons of Galway

 

Over the course of the last few centuries, the subject of Freemasonry has aroused strong feelings on the part of both those who see it as a benevolent organisation which does a great deal of good, as well as those who view it darkly as a conspiratorial body which nefarious international links with everything from occultist groups to shadowy figures intent on imposing a tyrannical world government.

 

More plausible unease has been provoked by alleged links between Freemasonry and the British police and the British judiciary, not to mention the still mysterious death of Italian banker Robert Calvi, head of the Banco Ambrosiano, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London.  Calvi, it turned out, belonged to a secret masonic group called P2, along with members of the Italian government and some very dodgy underworld figures.

 

Nobody knows where Freemasonry originated although the official version of its history has it going back to the days of King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.  Apparently, King Hiram of Leanon, along with providing King Solomon with the great cedar wood trees used in the construction of the temple, also sent his own highly skilled team of builders and masons to help build the holy place.  Hiram was the first masonic chief, and the different degrees which are found in the Freemasonry can all be traced back to those first builders.

 

Other explanations of where Freemasonry came from include the stonemasons who built the great churches, cathedrals and places during the Middle Ages – which is very plausible, especially from what we know about the highly organised guilds which flourished among skilled workmen of that period.

 

In his impressively comprehensive book The History of Galway, City & County, by Ennis-based Sean Spellissy (published by the Celtic Bookshop, 2 Rutland Street, Limerick city; email [email protected]) is found the first full account – at least to my knowledge – of Galway’s association with Freemasonry.

 

The earliest Masonic lodge established by the Freemasons of Galway was No. 14, which later became known as the Premier Lodge of Connacht.  On May 1, 1733 Robert Andrew, John Cox, and Dominick Lynch applied for permission “to erect a lodge of Free Masons” by the Grand Master of Ireland, Lord Viscount Netterville.

 

Apart from Lodge No. 14, the author tells us, a number of other lodges were established in the city, including Lodge No. 91 (which lasted from 1738 to 1810), Lodge No. 106 (from 1739 to 1801); Lodge No. 274 (1756 to 1825); Lodge No. 368 (1761 to 1830), and Lodge No. 9 (1825 to 1855).

 

Galway people will be familiar with the Freemasons Hall on Eglinton Street (which now houses the Mill Street Study Centre), with its distinctive compass motif worked in brick high on the wall.  This was the headquarters of Lodge No. 14 and was built in 1878 by a Portadown building firm, Collen Brothers.

 

For many people, the most surprising aspect of Galway’s masonic past is its resolutely non-sectarian character throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries.  As the author explains:

            “Membership of the masonic order was rather similar to that of a chamber of commerce in several aspects.  Professional and business communities were provided with a social milieu in which to meet and newcomers to an area found membership advantageous.

 

The Freemasons were non-sectarian in outlook but one had to believe in a Supreme Being to qualify for membership.  Catholics joined the Protestant membership of the Freemasons in amity and the organisation accommodated the Catholic members in every way, even postponing the feasts held on principal holidays if those days happened to fall on Friday, the day on which Catholics abstained from meat….

The masonic membership throughout the west of Ireland was predominantly Catholic and the order circumvented the notorious penal laws on behalf of its Catholic brethren in Ennis, Limerick, and elsewhere.  I suspect that the Freemasons of Galway operated in much the same way because I have not discovered any other satisfactory explanation for the way in which the Catholics merchants prospered under the Protestant corporation within the city.”  A kind of ‘old boys network’, in other words.

 

Catholic Freemasonry, which also flourished on the Continent, had been condemned by the Pope from1751 onwards, largely because of what he saw as its non-dogmatic religious unorthodoxy.  But it was only after Catholic Emancipation was granted that the Church began strongly attacking Catholic membership.

 

However, a few years earlier, in 1815, two priests had made a bitter attack on the Catholic Freemasons of Galway.  James Valentine Browne, a Catholic Freemason, strongly defended the lodges in the name of both Protestant and Catholic brethren:

            “We censure, with no small reluctance, the act of persons, the sanctity of whose profession we feel a disposition to respect… but we cannot… suffer the Altar of god to be converted into a rostrum from which to heap unmerited infamy and odium upon our principals as Masons, and our characters as Men, without coming forward to fling back such libels  at their source…. Such of us as are Catholics desirous to declare, and such of us as are Protestants join the declaration, that thundering the most severe anathema of the Catholic Church… is not the most appropriate return that could be made by any of the Roman Catholic priesthood for the services of such men as a Sussex, a Kent, a Moirs, a Donoughmore, a Grattan, a Fitzgerald, and O’Connell, and many others, whose titles or names it is unnecessary to enumerate.”  All those listed were themselves Freemasons.

 

I have focused on just one small dimension of Sean Spellissy’s superb book on the city and county of Galway.  His detailed survey of the county is arranged in terms of the baronies, eg, the Barony of Athenry, Ballynahinch, Dukellin, and son on.  He covers archaeological, historical, social, religious, literary and what we could call the ‘curiosa’ of each barony.  The town is covered in great detail as well, with literally dozens of interesting or little known facts making this a book that once opened can be closed only through a tremendous act of will!

 

Two additional features are a meticulous survey of Galwegians in print, from venerable figures such as Roderick O’Flaherty, up to Rita Ann Higgins.  And the other very valuable feature is and extended bibliography.

 

Anyone with any interest in the history of Galway city and county should have a copy of this fine publication on the shelf.  It’s a pleasure to read, and invaluable source for local history, and one of the most significant contributions ever to Galway history.  The History of Galway, City & County by Sean Spellissy is available at all good bookshops.  – Seathrun of Dubhros

 

St. Nicholas’ Parochial School

 

Picture

 

The opening of St. Nicholas’ Parochial School in 1926 marked a new departure for the primary education of Protestant children in Galway, and it should be celebrated as such.  However, it also marked the close of a protracted and frequently acrimonious struggle for multi-denominational primary education in the town of Galway, and this too should be recalled.

 

In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, the provision of formal instruction for children had usually been promoted by the government only in association with Protestant evangelical societies and the Church of Ireland.  Government funded schooling was perceived by Catholics, and especially by Catholic clergy, as an instrument for proselytism.  In this respect Galway was no different and there had been a Charter School in operation on the site of today’s convent building on Presentation Road from 1755-91.  In 1826, a Protestant parish school which also catered for Catholics, began to function from the grounds of St. Nicholas’ Church.

 

In 1852, a Model School was established on Upper Newcastle Road, and by 1862, it had 400 pupils.  This proved too much for Bishop John McEvilly, who set out to destroy it and make way for explicitly ‘Catholic’ education.  He invited the Mercy Sisters and the Patrician Brothers to Galway, and when they had established schools, he made it a ‘reserved sin’ for Catholic parents to send their children to the Model School.  This resulted in 199 pupils withdrawing, and meant the end of multi-denominational education in Galway.  The Model School began to decline, and it eventually closed in 1926 and the pupils transferred to Buckland Buildings in Waterside, where St. Nicholas Parochial School opened on July 12 of that year.  The first headmistress was Miss O’Brien, to be followed in 1931 by Miss Jean Victoria Aitken.  In 1946, a Miss Laura Smith Moffett who was doing teaching practice at the school wrote: “This school is like a morgue from the outside, and inside it is like a shop.  The light of day barely gets through the windows so that the children have usually to work by artificial light”.

 

Today, all has changed.  The old school was knocked down and rebuilt in 1965, and extended in 1985.  Today the building is full of light, is warm and welcoming and has pupils from 22 nationalities.

 

This has been a very exciting week in the history of the school during which President McAleese came to visit, and a book was launched celebrating 75 years of history and memories of St. Nicholas’.

 

The book, by school principal Leslie Lyons is a fascinating mixture of history and nostalgia, with a complete list of pupils and many illustrations.  To celebrate this anniversary we have the pupils of the school in 1955 with two of their teachers.  They are:

Back Row:  Miss Sherwood, Myles Bevis, John Coy, Brian Park, ______, Zandra Hunter, Margot Briand, Daisy Armstrong and Miss Aitken.

Front Row:  Fleur Briand, Syvia Miller, Carol Steward, Raymond Stewart, Ken Park, Clodagh Cook, _____, Marian Coy.

Congratulations to St. Nicholas’ Parocial School and to all concerned on this notable week.

 

Transcribed from the ‘Old Galway’ Series of the ‘Galway Advertiser’

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/

 

 

Mimi Stevens