Welcome to the digital home of Lodge 248

 

Roscommon Lodge which is lodge 248 on the Irish Register holds its meetings in Athlone where its shares the Lodge 101 premises with lodge 37.

Lodge 248 originated outside of Roscommon with the earliest existing record dates to 1754 when it was Loughrea Lodge in Co. Galway. Loughrea lodge fell by the wayside due to lack of numbers in 1813 with the warrant being cancelled.

The Number 248 was then reissued to “St Nicholas Union Lodge” in Carrickfergus Co.Antrim in June 1819 being subsequently cancelled on 7th September 1843. On 31st July 1846 it was reissued to the brethren of Roscommon as Roscommon Lodge 248.

It is worth noting here that Masonic lodges in Ireland unlike England reissue lodge numbers whenever a lodge ceases to exist. Consequently there are relatively low numbers on the various Irish Lodges in comparison to England where a new number is issued to each newly formed lodge.

In early years Roscommon was very active with some 94 brethren registered in teh 1890’s. A new Masonic hall was built in September 1891 and lodge meeting were held there until February 1941 The lodge in Roscommon was located in in the town square in what is now known as Gleeson’s restaurant.

The decision to move to Athlone to share the Masonic centre was taken for practical reasons in 1941 with 31 registered members. The lodge transferred its meetings on 19th February 1942 to Athlone wher it shares premises with Lodge 101 as well as lodge 137. To this day this continues to be the case and the lodge meets regularly at Masonic Centre in Northgate Street,Athlone.Co.Westmeath.