Coleraine Twelfth Festival

A Celebration of Culture & Heritage

Macosquin District LOL No.8 is one of the 11 Districts which make up the County of Londonderry Grand Orange Lodge. The District comprises of the following 6 Private Lodges: LOL 4 - Ballinteer, LOL 212 - Castleroe, LOL 310 - Macosquin, LOL 573 - Leck LOL 1017 - Articlave, and LOL 1032 - Ballinrees.

The membership of each Lodge is drawn from their respective local communities and contains brethren from all walks of life. They consist of farmers to accountants, clergymen to the unemployed, bringing together a great diversity within each lodge. All lodges meet in their own Orange Hall on an agreed evening once a month for business. However on a number of occasions further meetings are required to deal with more detailed issues that arise.

The Orange Halls are not solely used by the members, many are used by various groups within the respective communities such as senior citizens, community groups, badminton clubs, bowling clubs; the list is long and varied. The Orange Hall plays a central role within the life of a community and in most cases use of it is given either freely or at a premium subsidy. The upkeep of the hall is the responsibility of the individual lodge; with the ever increasing insurance premiums and rates bills this places a great financial burden on each member. All income to the lodges is voluntary and therefore great ingenuity in fund raising becomes a reality in order to meet these spiralling costs.

Macosquin District and the private lodges are famed for their charitable work, with many local and mainstream charities benefitting from generous financial donations. The Orange Order, as a whole, made the biggest ever, single contribution to Cancer Research when a cheque for £121,000.00 was presented in 2003.