FREEMASONRY IN ULSTER, 1733–1813. A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE MASONIC BROTHERHOOD IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND Petri Mirala, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2007. Hardback, 304 pages, catalogue price: €50.00; web price: €45.00. ISBN: 978-1-84682-056-4

Historians who delve into the history of Freemasonry are familiar with the need to separate fact from fiction, but in countries such as Ireland this process is more problematic than elsewhere, not least because of the paucity of existing research and the presence of many well-established myths. Therefore, this well-balanced study is extremely welcome as it shines a light on Freemasonry in Ulster in the long eighteenth century, as well as Irish Freemasonry as a whole. It also addresses many common myths that relate to Irish Freemasonry and the Volunteer movement of the 1780s, parliamentary reform, the United Irishmen, the revolutions of the 1790s, the emergence of Orangeism, and the struggle for Catholic emancipation.
     Modern Irish Freemasonry can be traced back to the establishment of the first Grand Lodge which met in Dublin in June 1725, and from the early 1730s lodges were officially being warranted and chartered; the first Ulster lodge to receive a warrant met in the town of Enniskillen in 1733. However, many Irish lodges evidently did not feel the need to register with the national masonic organisation and these have been traditionally labelled ‘hedge’ lodges, that is, ‘clandestine’ or ‘irregular’ masonic associations. And as Dr. Mirala argues, it is from this so-called hedge masonry that associations such as the Orange order later emerged.
     Consequently, it is not surprising to discover that Irish Freemasonry did become politicised, most notably around the time of the American War of Independence when the Volunteer movement emerged during the 1780s. For instance, on 24 June 1782, the members of Lodge 547 in Newtonstewart, County Tyrone, decided to form themselves into ‘the First Free Mason Corps of the Kingdom of Ireland’ (p. 169). And the following year the politician Henry Grattan was also elected a member of the exclusive lodge no. 620 – the ‘First Volunteer Lodge of Ireland’, albeit that the Grand Lodge in Dublin sternly refused to sanction his admission.
     But for all that, Mirala keenly emphasises throughout how Irish Freemasonry did embrace men of diverse political opinions, and for many the craft simply offered a degree of sociability. Indeed, there never was a single form of the Irish craft.

Matthew Scanlan