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A Brief
History by Provincial Assistant Grand Master
Rt Wor
Bro Norman Humes
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In the 1860s, almost 4 years of
consideration, debate and reports were required to create the jurisdiction
of today’s 13 Provincial Grand Lodge Provinces in Ireland. Even then, only
thanks to an amendment to the original proposal [carried by a slender
majority] the arrangements for Tyrone and Fermanagh might have meant a
different alignment.
Key factors made this extended
experiment in devolution viable: an expanding railway system, postal
services and established banking facilities. Such innovations helped to
eradicate the feeling of remoteness felt by this area from the centre of
control in Dublin.
Undaunted by the implications of
the regulatory authority of this powerful new body, the 13 stalwart lodges
[7 in Tyrone, 6 in Fermanagh] gave unanimous support for its impending tier
of management.
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Sir John Marcus Stewart Bart,
a popular choice, was installed on 27th
January 1869 with as much style and dignity as possible for an original
local ceremony, in the impressively-sounding Grand Jury Rooms of Omagh’s
most distinctive building, the Courthouse. The 39 year old Sir John,
already an eminent figure in the Tyrone community, was a former officer with
the Inniskilling Dragoons in the Crimea campaign. In an apposite stroke of
diplomacy, he announced that his Provincial Deputy Grand Master would be
Major J G Irvine. [Fermanagh]
During his 36 years at the helm,
Sir John exercised his delegated responsibilities with enthusiasm, vigour
and decisive firmness, laying the foundations of systems which his 9
successors would endorse, refine or enhance according to the needs of
changing circumstances.
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Each of those succeeding Provincial
Grand Masters has left his imprimatur on the Province’s sound development:
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Lord Frederick Hamilton [1905 -
1920] |
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W H Darragh [1921 – 1935] |
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Colonel R Clifford [1936 –
1961] |
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W H Fyffe [1962 – 1967] |
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W Mc Millar [1968 – 1981] |
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G C Andrews [1982 – 1988] |
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I G Brown [1989 – 1991] |
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W J E Dukelow [1992 – 2002] |
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D H Weir [2003 – present] |
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The formation of the new Province
was a watershed for the 13 surviving lodges in a century when Tyrone had
once 92 warranted lodges and Fermanagh as many as 45 lodges. Since that
important milestone in 1869 and additional 28 lodges have been constituted
and no warrants have been surrendered, despite such vicissitudes as economic
fluctuations, civil unrest, social life-styles or alternative priorities.
Today the Province can be justly
proud of its record of service, strong emphasis on charity, high standards
of ritual, focus on arrangements designed to promote fairness and
transparency and a flexibility top tackle the fresh challenges of the
future.
Succeeding generations of Tyrone
and Fermanagh Freemasons have responded, in ample justification, to the
wisdom of that original Grand Lodge Amendment of 1865!
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TYRONE
AND FERMANAGH