Salem Lodge No 62 Kenmare

home | site map | email

The Masonic Hall
27, Tuckey Street,
Cork.

Phone
021-4274095

Salem Lodge No. 62, Kenmare

Constituted 1994

Meets at Templenoe Community Centre (near Kenmare), Co. Kerry

Fourth Friday of every month, at 8.30 pm

(excluding June, July, August and December)

April Meeting at 5.00 pm (Installation Dinner)

Lodge Contact: salem62secretary@yahoo.co.uk

Warrant No. 62 was issued on 5 April 1810 to the Dublin Militia, then stationed at Tralee. Lodge 62 worked at Tralee for 11 years, its warrant being cancelled on 5th July 1821. It was re-issued to Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on 5th October that same year and worked there for 48 years. It was returned to Tralee on 30th November 1869, where it met at Tralee Masonic Hall, in Edward Street, erected in 1867, by No. 379. This building was formerly a Methodist meeting hall, and was adapted for Masonic purposes, with a large lodge room upstairs and supper room downstairs. For a period in 1888, the supper room was used by the Presbyterian congregation of the town during repairs to their church, and an ordination and dinner was held there.

In July 1882, both lodges No. 62 and No. 379 amalgamated by agreement, creating a single Masonic Lodge No. 62 at Tralee. Thereafter – until the mid-1960s – there was a single Tralee lodge.

For a short period from 1966 until the early 1970s, both No. 62 and No. 130 met at the Tralee Masonic Hall. ‘Star of the West’ No. 130 ceased meetings during 1971, while those of No. 62 ceased early in 1974, and the warrant was returned in trust to Grand Lodge, 7 March 1974. The Masonic Hall was then purchased by Post Office – due to its proximity to their premises in the town – and more recently was the Kerry headquarters of Comhaltas Ceoilteoiri Eireann, the Irish Traditional Music organization.

Warrant No. 62 remained dormant until 17th November 1994 when the present Salem Lodge No. 62 was constituted. The Masonic Lodge premises having been sold in the interim, the meeting has since been held at Templenoe Community Centre, near Kenmare.

All visiting brethren are welcome to attend our meetings.

Other Co. Kerry Warrants:

The first warrant issued for a Lodge to be held in Tralee was No. 71 in 1737. This warrant was, later in the 18th century, transferred to Cork City, where it worked until 1976; its Royal Arch Chapter still works in Cork.

In 1761, Warrant No. 373 was issued for Killarney, and was still working in the town in 1834.

In 1800 warrant No. 886 was issued to Tralee but does not appear to have worked there for very long; it is now held at Oron, Nigeria.

Warrant No. 66 was issued on the same day as No. 62 – 5th April 1810 – to the Kerry Militia, who worked it for 46 years, during which time they registered 204 members. The warrant was surrendered on 13th November 1856 and was re-issued in 1867 to Hillsborough, Co. Down, where it still works.

Warrant No. 379 was issued to Tralee, May 15 1829 and worked for 53 years. Previous to 1867 this Lodge met in Benner’s Hotel, in the town, but owing to disturbances ceased to meet there. It amalgamated with No. 62 on July 20 1882, having registered 338 members in that period; after a period of dormancy, the warrant was issued in 1904 to Crossgar, where it still works.

The only other Kerry Lodge was ‘Star of the West’ No. 130, issued in 1881 for a Lodge at Valentia Island. It worked there until 1922 when it was moved to Waterville. It continued at Waterville until 1966 when the warrant was moved to Tralee but, sadly, it only survived some 5 years more.

Here it is interesting to note, that the name of the W.M. (Rev. John Blennerhasset) is the same as the S.W. mentioned on the warrant issued to Lodge 71 thirty-four years previously, and probably the same individual. It is even more interesting to note that Daniel O’Connell mentioned on the warrant issued to Lodge No. 886 in 1800, was the great politician, known as the Liberator, who was initiated in Lodge No. 189, Dublin.

Another distinguished member of the O’Connell family, Colonel Sir Maurice Charles O’Connell, second cousin of the Liberator, and some time President of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Queensland, was a prominent Freemason, and was Provincial Grand Master of Queensland, under the Irish Constitution, from 1866 till 1879.

Yet another distinguished Kerryman whom we can claim as a Brother Mason, was born about a mile outside the town of Cahirciveen in 1808, in the person of Henry O’Brien, author of The Round Towers of Ireland and translator of Doctor Villeneuve’s Phoenician Ireland. He was a member of the ‘Bank of England’ Lodge, London.

History of Warrant No. 62

There is no record of the original grant of this number in the register of Grand Lodge, but it was probably in November 1736 or February 1737; in either case, it was erased from the register, 5 November 1801.

It was reissued to CITY OF DUBLIN MILITIA, 5 April 1810, and a Grand Lodge minute of 6 October 1814 noted that 62 was ‘to be a resident lodge in the City of Dublin’, while a further minute of 1 May 1817 rejected a memorial of 62 to be a military lodge. The warrant was cancelled, 5 July 1821.

It was reissued to second time to COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, 4 October 1821, under the title ‘St Thomas and St James Lodge’, where it worked until the warrant was sent in during 1855.

The warrant was reissued a third time to TRALEE, Co Kerry, 30 November 1869 under the title ‘Salem Lodge’, where it worked until 1974. The warrant was held in trust until 1994, when this old number was revived at KENMARE, Co. Kerry.