Not a way of tying a dressing gown, but a branch of the The Ancient and Most Benevolent Order of Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick. They hold a service on the Tuesday nearest to St. Patrick’s Day and I was recruited to join the choir in the chapel of St John’s Hospital (an ancient foundation, now sheltered housing) where I’d never sung before. It was the first time in a while that I’d sung a service from a west gallery. It was good old traditional Church of England Mattins, with Anglican chants and, at the climax, St Patrick’s Breastplate (all verses) sung to the music of Thomas R. Gonsalvez Jozé. I’d never encountered this setting before, and it’s been generally supplanted by Stanford’s (or simplified versions of it), but it’s the one the Bath Knot always sings.
A variety of Orders like this exist quietly, for charitable reasons and as a source of social events (and a chance to wear regalia!) I encountered one at Winchester Cathedral a few years ago; a Roman Catholic organisation holding an unadvertised service in a side chapel and firmly all-male, in fact seeming to consist of the sort of man who finds any woman threatening. The Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick, however, include sisters, although from the sound of them I would guess few members had grown up in Ireland. Afterwards we all enjoyed some craic over wine and canapés.