Freemasons' Hall – Dublin's Grand Lodge

Overview

For a €5 contribution and no booking, a guide will walk you through the ceremonial rooms of Irish Freemasonry’s headquarters – the sort of interior most people assume is sealed off to outsiders. The public tours run at 3pm on weekdays, mainly over the summer months, from the sandstone building on Molesworth Street that has been home to the Grand Lodge of Ireland since it opened in 1869. The Grand Lodge itself was founded in 1725, and is the oldest to have operated without a break anywhere in the world, as well as the second most senior after England.

The museum is a simpler, separate proposition: free, open Monday to Friday year-round, and full of ceremonial regalia, jewellery, tools and symbolic oddments. If you have time for only one, take the tour – the ceremonial rooms are the reason to come, and they are not otherwise open to the public. One caveat, though: tours can be pulled at short notice when the building is in use for a lodge event, and outside the summer they may not run at all. Ring ahead on the day if you are making a special trip.

The Hall sits opposite Buswells Hotel, a short walk from the National Museum of Archaeology and the Irish Parliament at Leinster House – easy to fold into a Kildare Street afternoon.

Architecture and the ceremonial rooms

English architect Edward Holmes designed the Hall as a three-bay, three-storey block with a pedimented gable front, built between 1866 and 1869. The façade climbs through a graduated order of columns – Tuscan at the ground floor, Ionic on the first, Corinthian on the second – and Masonic motifs are carved straight into the stonework: the all-seeing eye, compasses and a hammer.

Inside, the plan centres on a wide corridor and a grand staircase framed by stained-glass windows installed between 1890 and 1920, which throw coloured light onto the encaustic tiled entrance hall. The upper floors hold a run of ceremonial chambers, each built to a different architectural tradition:

• Grand Lodge Room – the largest space, under a double-height arched ceiling painted blue with white and gold trim, a ceiling mural by Edward Gibson, and a pipe organ.
• Royal Arch Chapter Room – Egyptian revival, with gasoliers and carved sphinxes.
• Knights Templar Preceptory – built to evoke a medieval crusader chapel, with timber-panelled roofing and Templar iconography in the glass.
• Prince’s Room – Gothic-Tudor, inspired by St Patrick’s Cathedral, with choir stalls and a carved stone fireplace.
• Prince Masons Chapter Room – pelican and eagle symbolism alongside flags and coats of arms.
• Mark Room – a plainer chamber built around keystone and triangular motifs.
• Mock Gothic Room – on the upper floor, pointed arches and stained-glass-style windows recreating a Gothic chapel.

The building is on the Buildings of Ireland register (Reference 50100107) for its architectural, artistic and social significance, and the interior finishes – from the original tiles to the period joinery – remain largely intact.

History

The site carries more of Dublin’s cultural history than the 1869 building alone suggests. An earlier hall on this stretch of Molesworth Street, designed by Deane & Woodward in 1867, housed the Irish National Theatre Society before it moved on to form the Abbey Theatre in 1904; that building was demolished in 1978.

The Grand Lodge had operated for over a century before commissioning a permanent home. Local builder Michael Mead took the construction contract, and Holmes’ design married Victorian ornament with the symbolic geometry the fraternity favoured. Sitting so close to the seat of government, the Hall kept crossing paths with Irish political history. In June 1921, representatives of football clubs from across the country met within its walls to found the Football Association of Ireland, splitting the game’s governance from the Belfast-based Irish Football Association; a plaque in the museum marks the occasion. During the Civil War, anti-treaty forces occupied the building for six weeks, and yet the interiors came through without damage.

The Hall still hosts lodge meetings, conferences and ceremonial events, and the museum documents the Grand Lodge’s administrative history alongside the ritual objects used in Masonic degrees.

Visiting: museum and tours

The Hall offers two ways in – the free museum, and the guided tour.

• Museum – open year-round Monday to Friday, free to enter. Displays run to ceremonial aprons, jewellery, historic documents and the tools used in Masonic degrees, and there is a specialised Masonic library and a small café.
• Public guided tours – at 3pm on weekdays, mainly over the summer, taking in the staircase, the ceremonial rooms and the museum. No booking, and a €5 contribution. Tours can be cancelled if a lodge event is on, so check before travelling out of your way.
• Private and group tours – parties of 12 or more can arrange a visit outside the public schedule, and outside the summer months, by contacting the Hall directly.

The Hall also shares space with St Anne’s Parish Centre, which uses it for community functions, book fairs and Culture Night each September. Access is reasonably well managed: there are steps at the front door, but a lift serves the first and second floors, so wheelchair users can reach the main rooms, and guide dogs are welcome throughout the public areas.

Practical information

Getting there – the Hall is a two-minute walk from the Luas Green Line stop on Dawson Street, and multiple Dublin Bus routes serve the Kildare Street and Dawson Street area.

Visiting tips – the museum is a good indoor stop in wet weather, and the lift puts most of it within reach. Allow 90 minutes to two hours for the rooms, museum and library at an easy pace – but ring the Hall on the day before you go out of your way, because a lodge meeting can close the doors with little warning.