Covenant returned to east Belfast from Bailieborough
Brakey LOL 56 in County Cavan held its annual Christmas dinner on Friday 28th November 2025 in their Orange Hall, thought to be the most southern Orange hall in the nine county province of Ulster.
The hall displays many links to East Belfast due to a lodge that used to function within Ballymacarrett District LOL No. 6 called County Cavan Defenders LOL 1327 and a Black preceptory / junior lodge which was associated with it.
In addition to being an excellent evening a local resident who happened to be in attendance wished to present a signed Ulster Covenant from 1912 which her aunt in America had found within a County Cavan property she owned.
The Covenant was signed by Thomas Henry Johnston at what it described as Albertbridge Orange Hall. He seems to have lived at My Ladys Road at the time of Ulster Day.
Lady Sylvia Frances Townley-Peeler asked her sister and neice to pass this Covenant to an Orange lodge.
By coincidence two District Officers / Committee members from Ballymacarrett District were in attendance. Doris (sister) and Sylvia (niece) presented District Lecturer Ryan McDowell and District Committee man William Craig (an affiliated member of LOL 56) with the Covenant to return to Ballymacarrett Orange Hall on the Albertbridge Road.
The brethren were extremely grateful to the family for the returned piece of history. The address at My Ladys Road seems to have been an aunt of Lady Sylvia Margaret Leitch who presumably descovered this document.
They also thanked LOL 56 Deputy Master Bro. Gordon Fisher (a former Ballymacarrett District Committee member) for the invite down gifting him / LOL 56 an LOL 1337 centenary flag as a thank you.
LOL 56 is a small but inspiring Orange lodge who rebuilt their Orange Hall after an arson attack in 2000 and has resiliently maintained an Orange presence in County Cavan ever since.