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Ormeau Apprentice Boys L.O.L. 978

This warrant was first issued in Newtownbutler prior to 1824 and in 1828 is recorded as part of No. 13 District Newtownbutler which consisted of 23 lodges.

The lodge remained in the same area until 1891 when the warrant became dormant. It was reissued as part of No. 10 District Ballynafeigh on 30 September 1899. The lodge have a lavish celebration in 1949 to mark the golden jubilee of their reconstitution as part of No. 10.

Since their original foundation under their first Worshipful Master, Bro,Coulston of Newtownbutler, the lodge, like most others, have had their good years and bad years. However, one feature is very evident from the lodge records: the gratitude they owed, and most adequately expressed, to Womens Lodge No. 53, who supported them actively in a variety of ways through the difficult years.

The lodge has enjoyed a good relationship with the District, with the exception of one occasion on which they threatened to leave the District and join No. 5 District. This controversy arose over the fact that No. 10 District's habitual place in the Twelfth procession was at the rear. The District Lodge refused to release them, and at a later date the whole question was happily resolved when the BelfastCounty Grand Lodge introduced a rota system to determine the parade order for all ten districts.

This Lodge, like so many others, was very involved in the social scene, organising dances and coach tours for their members and friends. Mention must be made here of two prominent members, W. Bros. Jack and Lawrence Humphries, brothers who were for many years a tower of strength not only to the lodge, but to the District itself.

This lodge, one of the strongest and most active in the District, has manyyounger brethren in the ranks, several of whom play an important part in District affairs. These include W. Bro. William Caldwell, District Secretary and District Master elect, District Lecturer Paul McCullough, District Secretary elect John Stevenson, and among the more senior brethren, District Chaplain W. Bro. William Finlay and W. Bro. William Hanna, the latter of whom with his late father, William Hanna senior, gave many years of service to the Orange cause in Ballynafeigh.

This account would be incomplete without mentioning W. Bro. M. Hutchinson, whose service to the District together with that of his father and three uncles, of whom a little is told elsewhere in the narrative, would be hard to better. Their faithfulness augurs well for their lodge and District.

Membership of the lodge is mostly drawn from South Belfast and the Newtownbreda areas.

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