23/10/2025
BEWARE: a long post follows, but hopefully one that provokes some thought.
When I post pictures of a disused orange hall, it often prompts a certain kind of response.
“How has the hall been allowed to get like this?”
“Grand Lodge should step in and fix this up.”
“Why isn’t somebody doing something about this?”
Those are all natural questions, as it pains many of us to see an old building that was once vibrant - and perhaps a part of our childhood - slowly decaying, seemingly unnoticed.
So, I thought I’d share some thoughts on this topic. I’ve photographed over 500 halls in the past four years and have yet to come across any two that are the same.
I’ve seen large halls, reminiscent of churches and other public buildings of their time. I’ve been to unremarkable halls, almost hidden between larger and more modern additions. I’ve seen small halls, tucked away up some country lane, where almost anyone would struggle to find them (and if you’ve ever tried to find an unfamiliar hall in the dark to attend a meeting you have been invited to, then you’ll understand what I’m talking about.)
Most halls have been purpose built. Others are converted schoolhouses, private dwellings or old market houses. Like I said, no two are the same.
Some are in great condition, perhaps frequently used and inhabited by large memberships. Others definitely look like the doors only get opened once a month.
Then there are those halls that have been abandoned. No longer needed for a monthly meeting, as the lodge has ceased to function, and the lack of modern amenities makes them undesired for any other use.
On their website, the Grand Lodge of Ireland are no more specific than saying that there are over 1000 lodges in the jurisdiction. My own work tells me that there are over 800 buildings that play host to orange meetings and even those vague numbers begin to tell us something. (I’ll not get into what qualifies as an ‘orange hall’ – for the purpose of this piece, assume I am talking about any building that regularly hosts a lodge meeting.)
The vast majority of orange halls are owned and used by only one lodge. The reason for that will be clear to many. Having your own hall is one of the most obvious forms of having your own identity. You can genuinely claim to hail from a specific village or townland if you too have a hall that bears the same name.
In years gone by, this would have been a huge selling point for the lodge. In decades gone by and in simpler times, the orange hall might have been the only ‘public’ building in the area, perhaps better known for the Saturday night dances held there than for the monthly lodge meeting. In good times, individual halls were very good for business.
But do so many halls serve the organisation well in today’s world?
Whether you have a large or small hall, the problems associated with them can be the same. Ensuring they remain habitable is the first issue; bringing enough money in to keep them functioning is next; while keeping up with modern standards might be no more than desirable for some.
Seldom does an orange hall become disused overnight. Barring some serious damage, either through criminal means or a freak weather episode, a hall slipping into disrepair tends to occur over a long period of time. Usually, the fortunes of the hall and the lodge itself go hand in hand. In cases, one cannot survive without the other.
When a lodge is doing well, upkeep of the hall is much easier. Healthy membership numbers tend to ensure that there are many hands to keep on top of maintenance. The opposite can make things very difficult. An aging membership, common in rural areas, might render upkeep of the hall almost impossible.
I’ve seen halls that are clearly several years past needing a fresh coat of paint. Others where some of the weeds have almost reached the windows, while the tattered remains of a flag on the pole suggests that really no-one is paying much attention at all.
If many halls were a good thing in good times; in lean times, they can become a real burden. For those members who inhabit a crumbling hall, the will to fix it might well be there, but the means just aren’t. In some cases, the state of the hall might be the reason some stay away, lest they be asked to carry out some job or put a hand in their pocket.
So what can be done?
The climate for getting grant funding to improve halls has probably never been better. But there are certainly hoops to get through to obtain that and of course a certain amount of drive from the lodge itself is required.
Advertising the building for wider use can unlock much needed income, providing funds to improve the hall, while bringing others through the doors that might not ever have been inside before. A new member might even be gained from it.
Consolidation of assets is something that never seems to get talked about. Lodges are deeply protective of their own identity, to the point that you might find two or three halls within a mile of each other, when common sense would suggest that the reasonable thing to do would be to share accommodation, which could be achieved while each lodge continued to operate separately. The outworking of that, of course, would be that there is now a ‘new’ disused hall for some to bemoan.
While moving out of your hall to share with another might be unpalatable, it is the situation that many churches are actively working through. Most towns and villages will have experienced some form of this, be it congregations being merged and buildings abandoned, or services rotating around different churches in an area.
Realistically, it’s rarely within the gift of the local District or even Grand Lodge to fund the repair of an abandoned hall – there are just too many, and some that are too far gone. Even if those old halls were saved from their crumbling state, what would be their new purpose, if the lodge was long gone? The true ownership of halls can be a tricky business too, and while a superior lodge might have claim to the possessions of a dormant lodge, this will rarely extend to buildings.
One notable example to the contrary can be found in County Down, where Rathfriland District took on bringing Ballyward Orange Hall back to life, opening it up again as a meeting place and mini museum for anyone that might seek to visit it.
One thing that shouldn’t be done is nothing.
I’ve said that halls don’t become unused overnight. Nor do lodges just fold one day. Except that ultimately, they do. Everyone in the local district will know about a struggling lodge and a cold, unwelcoming hall for a long time before it reaches its end. Plenty will tut and express how much of a shame it is that a lodge has had to close up, but few will have got actively involved in trying to prevent it. Loyalty and interest in one’s own lodge tends to win out.
In some areas, the order is doing just fine. In others there is a steady decline and without some bold thinking, that trend won’t be reversed. Possession of an orange hall should be the thing that enables a lodge, it should never be the burden around its neck.
