An independent heritage resource devoted to the long and often surprising story of Freemasonry in Ireland’s mid-west — the historic Masonic province of North Munster, embracing the counties of Limerick and Clare and neighbouring parts of Tipperary and Kerry.
Few regions of Ireland can claim a Masonic story as old or as richly documented as the country around Limerick. Written records of lodges here reach back to the early eighteenth century, and a single weathered brass square recovered from a Limerick bridge carries a date — 1507 — that places some form of the craft in the city fully two centuries before the first Grand Lodges were ever organised. This site gathers that heritage in one place: the artefacts, the buildings, the customs and the myths, told as history rather than membership.
A province created in 1842
The Masonic Province of North Munster was formally constituted in 1842, and its boundaries have remained remarkably stable ever since, covering broadly the mid-west of Ireland. The lodges within it, however, have shifted continually with the fortunes of the region — some closing as populations moved, others founded anew. Historic lodges associated with the province include Antient Union Lodge No. 13, Eden Lodge No. 73, Ormonde Lodge No. 201, Excelsior Lodge No. 268 and Triune Lodge No. 333, with St. Patrick’s Lodge No. 311 long meeting further east at Roscrea. These names are recorded here for their historical interest only.
What you will find here
- The history of Freemasonry in Ireland and how the North Munster province fits within it.
- The story of the Baal’s Bridge Square, dated 1507 and reckoned among the oldest Masonic objects in the world.
- The remarkable wartime tale behind the Marencourt Cup of 1813.
- Clear, myth-busting explanations of Masonic “secrecy” and the fraternity’s charitable tradition.
Older than the Grand Lodges
The Grand Lodge of Ireland is the second-oldest Grand Lodge in the world, with the first firm evidence of its existence appearing in the Dublin Weekly Journal of 26 June 1725. Yet Limerick’s Masonic memory is older still. Antiquarians point to the seventeenth-century “Trinity Tripos” manuscript and, above all, to the little brass square found beneath Baal’s Bridge, as signs that organised stonemasons’ lodges gathered in Ireland long before any central governing body was formed. Lodges that can trace their working to before 1725 are known as “Time Immemorial” lodges.
Craft, commerce and the city
For three hundred years and more, Freemasonry in North Munster was woven into the commercial and civic life of Limerick — its merchants, architects, soldiers and professional men. A purpose-built Masonic centre opened on Limerick’s King’s Island in 2005, close to the medieval heart of the city, and its museum and library preserve exhibits that trace exactly these connections between the Masonic order and the life of the region across the centuries.
Whether you have followed an old link to this address, are researching a Limerick ancestor, or are simply curious about the symbols carved into the city’s stonework, we hope these pages illuminate a fraternity that has always valued brotherly love, relief and truth above secrecy and spectacle.
This is an independent heritage and educational resource. It is not the official website of, nor affiliated with, the Grand Lodge of Ireland or the Provincial Grand Lodge of North Munster, whose current official site is maintained separately.