Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Orphan girls spell out the year 1792.
In 1892.
It was literally bazaar.
Sibling of Daedalus writes:
This is an 1892 photograph of orphan girls from the Masonic Orphans’ School, Ballsbridge, commemorating the centenary of their school’s foundation. Possibly they were practising for the Masonic Centenary Five Day Bazaar which opened at the Royal Dublin Society on this day in 1892.
The Bazaar, which raised over £21,690 for the school, was a grand affair containing reconstructions of historic Dublin buildings, a human chess game, and landscaped gardens.
As a special favour, the ladies manning stalls were allowed to wear ‘recognisably different’ but still quasi-masonic aprons.
Over 96,000 people attended, not all of whom were masons, leading the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh, to warn that any Catholic subsequently attending a masonic bazaar would be liable for excommunication.
Taking no chances, the Catholic Church organised its own bazaar at the very same venue almost exactly two years later. It was called ‘Araby’, a name possibly familiar to Joyceans.
How illuminati-ing
Pic: Via IrishMasonicHistory
