Friday night, September, 21 was Culture Night in Dublin and the Grand Masonic Lodge on Molesworth Street opened its doors to thousands of visitors.  It was fascinating to tour the rooms within the Freemasons' Hall and listen to the members talk about Masonry.  The museum was interesting, with artifacts from hundreds of years ago.  The Lodge in Dublin was founded in 1725 and is still going strong.  The Knights Templar lodge within  was interesting to see.  

The thing that struck me about the lodge is the use of devices from various religions and beliefs from around the world.  While the Freemasons are non political and  non religious there was a lot of iconry on show. One room was devoted to Egyptian icons and another was like a  Medieval chapel.  

I found an award to a Charles Scales....maybe some distant relative.  there is a picture of it in the slide gallery, with the card explaining why it was given. 

Judging by the crowds that queued for hours to see inside, freemasonry has a huge draw for people as many were curious to see inside a secret society. The Freemasons were very welcoming and it is worth a visit.  Private visitors are welcome to the Lodge, see Irish-freemasons.org for more information or email office@freemason.ie or telephone (01) 676 1337..

Hotel bedrooms have become soft furnishing showpieces, but sometimes simple is best, writes JOAN SCALES 

AVE YOU EVER woken up in the middle of the night with the feeling that someone has lit a fire under your bed? Welcome to the pillow-top mattress, the mattress topper or the memory foam mattress. These are the latest additions to hotel beds to make us feel comfortable and cosseted. However, at four in the morning, when the feathers and foam have absorbed as much heat as possible, the mattress tries to perform spontaneous combustion under us; at least that’s what it feels like.

Modern hotel rooms have become showrooms for bedroom trappings: scatter cushions, bolsters, bedspreads, runners, microfibre duvets, 400-thread luxury linens, incredibly thick drapes, and that’s before we get to the pillow menu.

Having a good night’s sleep has become a battleground of human versus bedroom. Before you can even get into bed, you have to dismantle all the toppings and trimmings. Then the room looks a mess, because who can fold up a bedspread that weighs more than a sumo wrestler? Actually, I think sumo wrestlers retire to be chambermaids – who else can lug around all the trimmings of a modern hotel bedroom and tuck in the sheets and duvet so tight that you lose your nails trying to loosen the hospital corners. Phew, and then when you have climbed up on to the seven-foot square plateau, panting from the exertion, the reading light gives out as much light as Wee Willy Winkie’s candle.

Not that we ever want to go back to the days of horse hair mattresses, concrete block pillows and banana beds – the ones that sagged so much in the middle you woke up bent like the fruit.

Hotels entice us with their beds – Westin has the Heavenly Bed, Sheraton has the Sweet Sleeper. Not only can you sleep in their beds, but you can buy them too. A Heavenly Bed will set you back about €3,000, plus some €700 for the linens.

A good night’s sleep is what a hotel has to sell and the Benjamin Hotel in New York takes sleeping so seriously it has a sleep concierge to help you plan your night’s rest. Choose from the 12-pillow menu – water or buckwheat filled, satin covered to protect from wrinkles, or a pillow with in-built speakers. The concierge can also recommend bedtime snacks for a restful night, including milk and cookies.

Hotels spend fortunes on making rooms comfortable and promoting their beds, but sometimes simple is what we need; just a bed, looking for a guest to keep warm and comfortable.

And don’t get me started on the air conditioning, windows that don’t open, and the chocolate on the pillow that somehow ends up melted into the bed.

The sun shone and glistened on the golden helmets of the gladiators as they played a maiden game in the shiny Aviva Stadium on Saturday.  It was fabulous to be there to feel the excitement and watch a game we only see on television.  I was lucky to be on the side line and watch the fun as the teams lined up in the tunnel before running out on the pitch. The roars were amazing......the Fighting Irish took the game with a score of 50 - 10. But everyone was a winner, you were in Ireland after all, on a beautiful day.