Corgar [Ballinamore] Orange Lodge

The nearest Orange lodge to Ballinamore was Corgar Loyal Orange Lodge 332, and it was there that Youell joined the Orange Institution. LOL 332 had been continually in existence since 1798, with one of the strongest historical lineages of the lodges of Leitrim. Ballinamore had been the scene of serious rioting in the early nineteenth century in relation to Orange processions and, despite its Protestant community being small, in 1907 a correspondent to the Belfast Weekly News said that it could lay claim to being the farthest west of any ‘real working lodge’ in Ireland (by that meaning one that not just meets on a regular basis but also attends the Orange demonstration on 12 July). A new hall was erected in the late nineteenth century, followed by a refurbishment in the early twentieth costing £100, and in an action remarkably ahead of its time in 1907 it introduced a reading room and opened the hall three nights a week during the winter months to allow locals somewhere to socialise.

When Frederick Youell rose to the rank of worshipful master of Corgar is unknown, but it was noted in 1909 that the large and commodious hall was specifically a ‘memorial of his zeal and hard work’.