Dromore Castle (1867)
‘The most perfect specimen of civilised nature’: the Shannon Estuary Group
Elite
Theory and Practice.
Matthew
Potter.
The purpose of the present chapter is to examine a small but influential
group within the Irish landlord caste with reference to elite theory. During
Hobsbawm’s ‘long nineteenth century’ (1789-1914), Limerick and Clare produced a
remarkable and closely knit coterie of enlightened gentlemen who practiced noblesse
oblige on a large scale, over several generations in a wide geographic
area. In 1988, David Fitzpatrick first drew attention to them and they formed
the subject matter of a dissertation by Jennifer Ridden in 1998.[i] As
they were without a useful collective term, and as they generally had their
principal residences at the mouth of the River Shannon, they have been recently
dubbed the ‘Shannon Estuary Group’.[ii] The principal families of the Group were the
Perys of Dromore; Wyndham-Quins of Adare; Spring-Rices of Mount Trenchard;
Monsells of Tervoe; de Veres of Curragh Chase; O’Briens of Dromoland and
O’Briens of Cratloe Woods House. This circle may have represented
the Irish landlord class at its best, at least according to some
observers. In 1840, the English author,
educationalist and cleric, William Sewell, who had become a close friend of
leading members of the Group, wrote that ‘an Irish gentleman, well born, well
educated, and with his natural tendencies modified by English associations is
perhaps one of the most perfect specimen of civilised nature’.[iii]
The origins of the Shannon
Estuary Group (SEG) as a progressive and reforming circle can be traced to the
careers of Edmond Sexton Pery (1719-1806), MP for Limerick city (1760-85) and
John Jebb (1775-1833), Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick (1822-33). Georgian
Limerick was ruled by successive Ascendancy families that dominated the
corporation by excluding most Protestants as well as all Catholics from the
city’s political life of the city. However, the eighteenth-century economic
boom created a prosperous Catholic and Nonconformist mercantile elite which
battled the Smyth and Vereker family (the most powerful and durable of the
ruling cliques) for many decades. Pery, a patriot who supported legislative
independence for Ireland and Catholic relief, allied himself with the local
‘popular’ elements as much to disoblige the Smyth and Vereker clique as for
ideological reasons. After 1800, these
disputes were framed by the emergence of a new two-party system in Britain and
Ireland with Limerick Corporation led by Lord Gort, adhering to the Tories
while the Pery family, Thomas Spring Rice and the merchant elite supported the
Whigs. The question of Catholic Emancipation also divided the parties, with the
Smyths and Verekers against and their opponents largely in favour. [iv]
If Sexton Pery was the
political founder of the SEG, Bishop John Jebb may be described as its
religious exemplar. Within the Group was a sub-division sometimes known as the
Tervoe Convert Set, consisting of William Monsell, the third Earl of Dunraven
and the three de Vere brothers. All of them had been followers of the Oxford
Movement, whose members wished to restore and revive the Church of England by
emphasising the elements in it which would justify its claim to be the ancient,
apostolic and Catholic Church. They emphasised the importance of Apostolic
Succession, the sacraments, and the central position of communion in the Church
service. [v] These tenets were the elements in Anglicanism
which most resembled the Roman Catholic position, but after working so
diligently to revive Anglicanism, many of its leaders, including the most
prominent, John Henry Newman, eventually became Roman Catholics.[vi] The Oxford movement in Ireland was very weak,
because the Church of Ireland, surrounded by a sea of Catholicism, was
predominantly Low Church and more inclined to stress its Protestantism than the
relatively more confident and secure Church of England. [vii] However, there was
also an old High Church tradition within the Church of Ireland which had
revived in the early nineteenth century. Its best known exponent was Bishop
Jebb under whose rule, ‘the Diocese of Limerick became a High Church centre for
both clergy and laity.’[viii] Though
opposed to Catholic Emancipation, Jebb was a political and religious moderate
who enjoyed good relations with his Catholic colleagues and opposed the Second
Reformation and it is due to this heritage that County Limerick saw such a
positive response to the Oxford movement.[ix]
The exercise of a local
hegemony by the SEG was not an exceptional experience or so elite theory would have it.
Geraint Parry writes that ‘the core of the elitist doctrine is that there
exists in any society a minority of the population which takes the major
decisions in the society.’[x] The Italian or
classical school of elitists founded by Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Paredo did
not merely assert that every society is divided between a small dominant
minority and a large dominated majority but that this was an inevitable and
unalterable situation, what Robert Michels called the ‘iron law of oligarchy.’[xi] Different assets were held to explain the
ascendancy of elites: organisational abilities (Mosca and Michels); a
particular psychological profile leading to high achievement (Pareto); control
of economic resources (James Burnham); and control over important institutions
such as government, big business and the armed forces (C. Wright Mills).
Classical elite theory postulated that an elite must be united and self-aware,
possessing what James Meisel described as the ‘three Cs’: consciousness of
being part of a group; coherence; and conspiracy, defined in this instance as a
‘common will to action.’[xii] Democratic or
pluralist elite theory modified classical elitism by positing the existence of
several groups, competing in a democratic system and thus dependant on the
masses for support. This pluralist elite need not be homogenous; it can
accommodate conflicting views in many areas (while adhering to certain basic
beliefs); and must be able to renew itself by recruiting new members or even
entire sub-groups, often on merit from a wide socio-economic base. However,
failure to do so could result in the gradual or even violent displacement of
the old elite by a new one. All elites survived due to the apathy and deference
of the majority as well as the latter’s acceptance of (or at least acquiescence
in) elite ideology, while few could prevail against a loss of legitimacy in the
eyes of the majority.[xiii]
Before 1800, the Perys had
been the most politically powerful family of the SEG and possessing the most
senior peerage (their principal title, Earl of Limerick dated to 1803), but
became largely peripheral figures in the nineteenth century. In the 1870s,
their estates consisted of 4,083 acres in County Limerick, 1,550 acres in
County Clare and 76 acres in County Cork. In addition, the Perys owned the
largest estate within the borough boundary of Limerick, later known as Newtown
Pery, which yielded a large income and made them one of the most influential
families in the city. The head of the family in the mid-eighteenth century was
Edmond Sexton Pery who has been described as ‘the most notable Limerickmen of
all time, and also its greatest benefactor’.[xiv] This accolade is due to his influence on the
history of the city, arguably greater than that of any other single individual,
as he was largely responsible for the creation of the present Georgian core of
Limerick, named Newtown Pery in his honour. In addition to his local primacy,
Pery’s period as Speaker of the House of Commons (1771-85) made him one of
Ireland’s most powerful men.[xv] His nephew Edmond Henry (1758-1844) also sat
for Limerick City (1785-94) and in 1803 was created the first Earl of Limerick. After the Act of Union, the Perys ceased to
be resident in Ireland, and became unpopular absentees for over sixty years,
though the first Earl sat as an Irish representative peer (1800-44). Even after they made Ireland their principal
residence again in the 1860s with the construction of Dromore Castle near
Pallaskenry, County Limerick, they continued to be relatively inactive
politically until the 1890s, when the third Earl (1840-96) served as a
Conservative whip and member of the British Privy Council. [xvi]
The Wyndham-Quins held the
title Earl of Dunraven for nearly two centuries (1822-2011) and were the
wealthiest family in the Group. In the
1870s, the fourth Earl was reputed to be one of the richest Earls in the United
Kingdom, with estates totaling 39,755 acres, of which 23,751 were in
Glamorganshire, and 14,298 were in County Limerick. Their principal Irish seat
was Adare Manor, set in the picturesque village of Adare, about ten miles from
Tervoe. Besides their immense estates in Limerick and Glamorganshire, they
owned land in Kerry, Clare and Gloucestershire.
Their other principal residences were Dunraven Castle, near Bridgend in
Glamorganshire (from which they took their principal title), and
Clearwell Court, Gloucestershire. The most significant members of the family
were the third Earl, Edwin Richard Windham Wyndham-Quin (1812-71) and his son
the fourth Earl, Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin (1841-1926).[xvii]
The Spring-Rice family
resided at Mount Trenchard, just outside Foynes, County Limerick and since 1839
have held the title of Baron Monteagle of Brandon. In the 1870s, the family
estates consisted of 6,445 acres in County Limerick and 2,310 acres in County
Kerry. The most prominent member of the family was Thomas Spring Rice
(1790-1866) who was indeed one of the most significant Irish political figures
of the nineteenth century. Married to a daughter of the first Lord Limerick, he
sat successively as MP for Limerick City (1820-32) and Cambridge (1832-39) and
was later created the first Baron Monteagle. He was one of the leading members
of the Whig Party for over a decade, and held a number of senior government
posts, (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury 1830-34, Secretary of State for
War and the Colonies 1834) before his career culminated in a term as Chancellor
of the Exchequer (1835-39).[xviii]
The Monsells resided at Tervoe House, about five miles
from Limerick city, and in 1876 their estates in Counties Limerick and Clare
comprised 2,710. The family held the title
Baron Emly of Tervoe from 1874 to 1932. The most
prominent member of the family was William Monsell, (1812-94), who in the 1840s
moved from being Church of Ireland and Conservative to being Roman Catholic and
Liberal. His political career lasted for sixty years (1835-94) during which
time he sat as MP for County Limerick (1847-74) and in the Lords (1874-94) and
became one of the leading political figures in Ireland, serving under four
Prime Ministers in a succession of offices between 1853 and 1873. One of the most prominent lay Catholics in
Britain and Ireland, he was a lifelong unionist, a Liberal Catholic and a
friend of such giants as Gladstone and Pius IX; Cardinals Newman and Cullen;
and Acton and Balfour.[xix] The English
branch of the family was also significant. Bolton Meredith Eyres Monsell
(1881-1969) had the most brilliant political career of any Monsell, culminating
in a seat in the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty (1931-6).[xx]
The de Vere family were
cousins of the Monsells through a common Pery ancestry and their country seat
was at Curraghchase, on the main road from Limerick to Askeaton. They held the baronetage of Curragh from 1784
to 1904. In the 1870s, their estate consisted of 4,166 acres, all situated in
County Limerick. Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788-1846) and his wife Mary Spring Rice
had five sons and three daughters. Three
of their sons were Sir Vere (1808-80), Sir Stephen (1812-1904) and the poet
Aubrey (1814-1902). Stephen was an enlightened landlord and social reformer who
travelled to Canada on a so-called ‘coffin ship’ in 1847 to
experience the privations of Irish emigrants, and later campaigned for reform
of the conditions under which they travelled to North America. [xxi]
North of the Shannon, the
O’Briens lived at Dromoland Castle, Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare. Among the titles held by the family were
Baron Inchiquin (from 1543), Earl of Inchiquin (1654-1855), Marquess of Thomond
(1800-55) and baronet of Leaghmenagh (from 1686). In the 1870s, the family
estates consisted of 20,321 acres in County Clare. Sir Edward O’Brien (1773-1837) and his wife
had five sons and four daughters. His most famous son, William Smith O’Brien
(1803-64) resided at Cahirmoyle House, near Ardagh, County Limerick, which in
the 1870s consisted of 4,997 acres . A commanding figure in the Repeal Movement
in the 1840s, O’Brien led the abortive 1848 Rebellion for which he suffered
transportation to Tasmania and consequently became a significant figure in the
apostolic session of Irish nationalism.[xxii]
A distant cousin was
Augustus Stafford O’Brien (1811-58) who lived at Cratloe Woods House, across
the Shannon estuary from Tervoe House, and also at Blatherwicke House,
Northamptonshire. In the 1870s, the estates comprised 27,394 acres in Ireland
(Counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary) and England (the shires of Rutland and
Northampton).[xxiii]
The SEG reached
the peak of their influence in the mid-nineteenth century, but continued to produce prominent figures into the early twentieth
century. The fourth Earl of Dunraven
became one of the leaders of constructive unionism, and a supporter of land
purchase and devolution. He was instrumental in the
establishment of the 1902 Land Conference composed of representatives of
landlords and tenants, whose report led to the enactment of the Wyndham Land Act of 1903. The second Lord Emly (1858-1932) became a
fervent though eccentric convert to Irish nationalism and the labour movement
while his cousin Elinor Mary Monsell (1879-1954) became a celebrated portrait
painter and engraver, and was a close friend of Lady Gregory and the Yeats
brothers.[xxiv] Monteagle’s grandson was the prominent
diplomat, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice (1859-1918), British ambassador to the USA from
1913 to 1918 while a great-granddaughter was Mary Spring-Rice (1880-1924), a
noted Irish nationalist and social reformer.[xxv] Smith O’Brien’s
daughter
The central research
questions of this chapter are: what kind of elite was the SEG and consequently, how successful was it as an elite? To begin in the
field of organization, identified by Mosca and Michels as essential to elite
power, the Group was bound together by several informal but powerful ties. In
the first place, its members were closely related, both by birth and marriage
as can be demonstrated by a few examples. Thomas Spring-Rice’s sister was
married to Sir Aubrey de Vere, making him the uncle of the brothers Vere,
Stephen and Aubrey de Vere. In turn, Spring-Rice was married to Theodosia Pery,
a daughter of the first Earl of Limerick.
One of Edmund Sexton Pery’s sisters, Dymphna, was married to William
Monsell of Tervoe, and their great-grandson was William Monsell, first Lord
Emly. The latter’s first wife was Lady Anna Maria Wyndham-Quin, daughter of the
second Lord Dunraven and sister to the third Lord Dunraven. One of William
Smith O’Brien’s sisters Harriet was married to Charles Monsell, a first cousin
of the first Lord Emly. Secondly, members of the SEG enjoyed the benefits of an
elite education, often at public school followed by Oxbridge or Trinity
College, Dublin. Again a few examples will suffice. Thomas Spring-Rice and
William Smith O’Brien both attended Trinity College, Cambridge; William Monsell
Oriel College, Oxford; and the third Earl of Dunraven, Trinity College Dublin.
Thirdly, members of the SEG were united by ties of deep friendship. Thus Monsell, the third Earl of Dunraven and the
three de Vere brothers were bound together by their common adherence to the
Oxford Movement and later conversion to the Roman Catholic Church; all five
sympathized with Smith O’Brien when he was transported, while deploring his
‘folly’ in leading the 1848 Rebellion; Stafford O’Brien detested the religion
of the Tervoe convert set, while continuing to have warm feelings for them
personally.[xxvii]
With regard to Pareto’s
concept of an elite consisting of high achievers, the SEG included significant
cultural figures. Generally, members of the Group self-identified as Irish
patriots, but defined their Irish nationality ‘in cultural and territorial
terms’ while ‘rejecting political nationalist aspirations’.[xxviii] Thus, the two leading literary
figures of the SEG, Aubrey de Vere and
the 3rd Earl of Dunraven were ‘cultural nationalists’, indeed major figures in
the Celtic Revival, while remaining political unionists. Aubrey de Vere became a celebrated poet whose greatest work was Inisfail: A Lyrical Chronicle of Ireland (1861), and was a
close friend of Wordsworth and Tennyson. Indeed, Inis
Fail is considered an important precursor of the Irish Literary Renaissance
and his Ballad of Athlone long
enjoyed high status in nationalist circles.[xxix] The third Earl of Dunraven studied astronomy
for three years under his friend Rowan Hamilton, and his vast range of
intellectual activity included archaeology, architecture, theology and even
spiritualism. He was also a leading
figure in the earlier stages of the Celtic Revival and his magnum opus, Notes
on Irish Architecture, was published posthumously in 1875-77.[xxx] In addition, Sir Aubrey de Vere, Stephen de
Vere, and William Smith O’Brien were all minor poets, and William Monsell,
though he published comparatively little, was a man of wide intellectual
interests. The SEG were also local cultural leaders and made a large
contribution to the built environment.
The Perys inspired the construction of Georgian Limerick and were later responsible
for building Dromore Castle, (one of the most dramatic buildings of the Celtic
Revival); the Earls of Dunraven created the beautiful mansion and village of
Adare; the O’Briens built Dromoland and Cahermoyle and the Monsells constructed
Tervoe House and the nearby estate village.[xxxi]
Nevertheless, their elite
status was not based on possession of outstanding talents; on the contrary it
was their wealth and leisure which enabled them to develop their talents and
abilities (later to be eclipsed by the achievements of individuals from much
less affluent backgrounds, such as Yeats, Shaw and Joyce). Here Burnham’s
location of elite power in the control of a disproportionate amount of economic
resources comes into play and it is difficult to avoid the Marxian conclusion
that the SEG owed their elite position to their ownership of landed estates,
mostly acquired in the Plantations and augmented during the era of the Penal
Laws. From the Dunravens’ 40,000 acre estate to the Monsells’ 2,000 acres,
their status as landowners gave them a massive advantage over all other
interest groups in society before the 1880s. Indeed, the Dunravens, O’Briens of
Dromoland and O’Briens of Cratloe Woods were part of the exclusive club of 305
landowners with Irish estates of 10,000 acres or more each. Ownership of land
did not merely bring economic power, but also conferred much greater prestige
than fortunes made in business or trade, and carried with it social hegemony in
the locality. It was regarded as part of the natural order that society should
be controlled and led by the landed elite. The connection between economic,
social and political hegemony is demonstrated by the fate of the Irish
landlords after the 1880s, when all three forms of social control slipped
simultaneously from their grasp as a result of the disestablishment of the
Church of Ireland, the Land Acts and the creation of a democratic local
government system in 1898-99.[xxxii]
In accordance with Wright
Mills’ location of elite power, the SEG and
their allies controlled most of the important local institutions
and offices until the Land War. The principal offices in an Irish county
were the lord lieutenant (not to be confused with the chief governor of the
entire country) and the high sheriff. The lord lieutenant was the chief civil
and military official in his county and though a ceremonial figure, he was also
granted significant powers. He
commanded the county militia, appointed deputy lieutenants, was head of the
magistry and recommended to the Lord Chancellor for appointments of all local
magistrates. In County Limerick, this office was filled by the third Lord
Dunraven (1864-71), the first Lord Emly (1871-94) and the fourth Lord Dunraven
(1896-1922) and in County Clare by the thirteenth Lord Inchiquin (1843-72) and
the fourteenth Lord Inchiquin (1879-1900). The high sheriff was an annual
appointment, whose main functions were the selection of the grand jury
(forerunner of the county council, an unelected committee chiefly composed of
landlords, which administered each county) and the organization of
parliamentary elections. Holders of the office in County Limerick included
William Monsell (1835), Vere de Vere (1836), Stephen Spring-Rice (1837) and
Stephen de Vere (1870). Members of the SEG also served as magistrates and sat
on grand juries and poor law unions; indeed William Monsell was chairman of
Limerick Board of Guardians from 1857 to 1882.
Members of the SEG also sat in both houses of Parliament for long periods, particularly
before the 1880s. The 1850s and 1860s, framed by the two great nationalist
movements of O’Connellism and Parnellism, were marked by a strong revival of
the power of the Irish landed elite who benefited from the mid-century economic
boom, the absence of a major nationalist agitation and the dominance of
localist and deferential politics. Even the Irish Tory Party flourished at this
time.[xxxiii] This Indian
summer of the landlords enabled the SEG to enjoy a political prominence
unimaginable after the 1880s which witnessed the creation of a mass Irish
electorate and a powerful agrarian-nationalist political machine.[xxxiv] The Group
included four significant political figures - Edmond Sexton Pery, Thomas Spring
Rice, William Smith O’Brien and William Monsell, but many more were also
parliamentary representatives, such as the third Earl of Dunraven, who, though
not primarily a politician, was MP for Glamorgan (1837-51) and on being created
a peer of the United Kingdom, a member of the Lords (1866-71).[xxxv]
The SEG also had Miesel’s three Cs. In
the first place, they possessed self-consciousness of being part of a coterie. Cultured, wealthy politically active and related by blood and marriage,
they also shared a common social, religious and intellectual background.
Secondly, they were a cohesive group, socially and (with important exceptions)
in their general political ideology.
Most of them were liberal in the broadest sense and supported moderate,
peaceful, piecemeal reform rather than radical revolution. Accordingly, the
Catholic converts in the SEG can be classed as Liberal Catholics, followers of
the French ideology which opposed the reactionary tendencies of Ultramontanism
and strove to reconcile the Church with modern doctrines, such as parliamentary
government, individual freedom, equality before the law and protection of
private property, which they regarded as positive, and to be compatible with
the teachings of the Church.[xxxvi] Additionally, most the SEG espoused a dual
Irish and British identity, in that they were passionately attached to Ireland,
but were also conscious of an overarching British loyalty. They ‘saw themselves
as British, but not English’, and ‘found it necessary to claim Irish identity,
in order to maintain and reinforce their legitimate leadership within Ireland’.
They cast themselves as mediators, representing the needs and desires of the
Irish people to the British state. [xxxvii] Thirdly, they possessed a common
will to action centred on noblesse oblige and a strong
social conscience.[xxxviii] They were
nearly all resident and improving landlords, exemplified by Thomas Spring Rice
who wrote in 1815 on ‘the elevated duties of the Irish country gentleman. It is a sphere of personal privation and of
personal exertion. But when a mind is
awake to that first of all delights, the power of becoming extensively and
permanently useful, all privations are forgotten, all labour is well
repaid. A peasantry capable of
improvement and grateful for every benevolent assistance, look up to the
landlord as to a protector and friend.
He may not only assist their distresses, but may enable them to assist
themselves’.[xxxix] This may be regarded as the common ideology (Meisel’s
‘conspiracy’) of the SEG.
In the language of
pluralist elite theory, the SEG was
self-recruiting and ‘closed’ as membership was based on the two criteria of
hereditary possession of landed wealth and relationship by birth and marriage.
However, it was not immune from the influence of public opinion and the masses
(indeed it is a moot point whether any elite in history operated in such a
purely autonomous fashion). Even in the restricted political system of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, members of the SEG had contested parliamentary elections, which though conducted on the
basis of a limited franchise, were still influenced by non-voters, such as
urban and rural ‘mobs.’ Additionally, they were divided politically, ranging from conservatives, like the first Earl of Limerick and Sir
Edward O’Brien, to an armed insurrectionary like William Smith O’Brien (though
as revolutionaries go, even he was comparative moderate). With the gradual widening
of the franchise, the SEG’s responsiveness to public opinion increased, and
many of them, such as William Smith O’Brien (whose political position evolved
from Liberalism to Repeal and beyond) William Monsell (who converted from
Conservatism to Liberalism) and the fourth Lord Dunraven (a Conservative who
eventually supported Home Rule) modified their political views accordingly. In
this manner, the SEG while remaining ‘closed, took on some of the traits of an
‘open’ elite.[xl]
Consequently, the Group
succeeded in maintaining their position with at least the acquiescence of the
non-elite majority, until the cataclysm of the 1880s brought about its demise
as part of Irish landlordism’s general collapse. Elite theory usually accounts
for the displacement of elites in two ways: ‘structural factors’ and
‘socio-psychological’ factors. In the case of the Shannon Estuary Group, the
structural factor which brought about their displacement was the loss of their
landed estates, which undermined the economic basis of their hegemony and left
them in possession of large houses and assets without the wherewithal to
support them.[xli] The major
socio-psychological factor was the rise of the two-headed monster of Irish
nationalism and land agitation which threatened the entire social system of
which they were part. Irish nationalist
ideology excluded the Anglo-Irish from the Irish nation and the governing myths
of twentieth century Irish nationalism - of an Ireland Gaelic, peasant,
Catholic - took shape in the 1880s and 1890s.
This was completely antagonistic to the belief of the SEG in an Ireland
that was Anglicised, ruled by enlightened gentry, made up of all classes and
creeds, and above all part of the United Kingdom.
Fundamentally, the SEG was
an example of a classic closed elite which was unable to make the transition to
a democratic open elite. While there were often political differences within
their ranks, the bulk of the Group were unionists who supported the social and
political system within which they had always operated. Irish patriots and
advanced reformers until the 1870s and 1880s, they were later regarded as being
both social and political conservative. Yet, it was not their ideology that had
altered but rather political circumstances had forced them, like so many of
their fellow landlords, into a more strident and self-conscious espousal of
unionism and the ascendancy of the Anglo-Irish. Unable to co-opt or recruit the
rising Irish bourgeoisie, which had colonized local government and
parliamentary representation, they found themselves squeezed between
nationalism and unionism; gradually excluded from the emerging sense of
Irishness; and derided for their identity of being both Irish and British. Some
of the SEG did attempt to engage with the ‘new Ireland’. Senior figures such as the fourth Lord
Dunraven, second Lord Emly and second Lord Monteagle successfully contested
seats on Limerick County Council, but their involvement ceased in the early
1920s. The curious involvement of Mary Spring-Rice and Conor O’Brien (grandson
of William Smith O’Brien) in the Howth gun-running was a more picturesque
episode but had little lasting impact. Although the fourth Earl of Dunraven sat
in the Free State Senate from 1922 to 1926, the SEG as a whole held aloof from
independent Ireland. By the mid-twentieth century, many of its constituent
families had become extinct (the de Veres) or non-resident in Ireland (the
Perys and the Monsells), though the Earls of Dunraven and Baron Inchiquins
continued to be popular residents in their respective localities to the time of
writing.[xlii]
[i]
See David Fitzpatrick, ‘Thomas Spring Rice and
The Peopling of Australia’ in The Old
Limerick Journal No. 23, Australian Edition, (Spring 1988), pp 39-49 and Jennifer Ridden, ‘Making Good
Citizens. National Identity Religion and Liberalism among the Irish Elite, c.
1800-1850’ (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1998).
[ii] Matthew Potter, William Monsell of Tervoe 1812-94:
Catholic Unionist, Anglo-Irishman. (Dublin: Irish
Academic Press, 2009), p. 6.
[iii] William
Sewell, ‘Romanism in Ireland’ in Quarterly Review,Vol. LXVII, No.
133, (December, 1840), p. 121.
[iv] See Matthew Potter,The Government and the People of Limerick.
The History of Limerick Corporation/City Council 1197-2006 (Limerick:
Limerick City Council, 2006), pp 258-79.
[v] Olive
Brose, Church and Parliament: the
Reshaping of the Church of England 1828-1860 (Stanford: Stanford University
Press and London: Oxford University Press, 1959).
[vi] David
Newsome, The Convert Cardinals. Newman
and Manning, (London: John Murray, 1993).
[vii] Peter Nockles, ‘Church or
Protestant Sect? The Church of Ireland, High Churchmanship and the Oxford Movement,
1822-1869’ in Historical Journal, No.
41, (1998), pp 457-93.
[viii] Alan
Acheson, A History of the Church of
Ireland 1691-1996, (Blackrock, Dublin: Columba Press, 1997)
p. 153.
[ix] For Jebb, see Desmond McCabe, ‘John Jebb (1775-1833)’ in James McGuire and James Quinn (eds), Dictionary of Irish Biography, From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for Royal Irish Academy, 2009), online
edition, http:// www.dib.cambridge.org
(hereafter referred to as DIB).
[x] Geraint Parry, Political
Elites (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1969), p. 30.
[xi] See T.B. Bottomore, Élites and Society
(London: Routledge, 1993) and John Scott, The
Sociology of Elites: the Study of Elites (Chletenham: Edward Elgar, 1990).
[xii] Parry, Political Elites,
pp 30-63.
[xiii] Eva Etzioni-Halevy, Classes and Elites in Democracy and
Democratization: a Collection of Readings (London
and New York: Garland Publishing, 1997) and Ilkka Roustetsaari, ‘Coexistence of
Elites and Democracy in an Information Society’ at http// www.
Hicsocial.org/Social2003Proceedings.
[xiv] Kevin
Hannan, ‘The Rich Inheritance of a
Limerick Mayor’ in David Lee (ed.), Remembering Limerick. Historical Essays Celebrating the 800th
Anniversary of Limerick’s First Charter granted in 1197, (Limerick:
Limerick Civic Trust, 1997), p. 112.
[xv] For Speaker Pery, see A.P.W. Malcomson ‘Speaker Pery and the Pery
Papers’ in North Munster Antiquarian
Journal , Vol. 21 (1973-4), pp 33-60 and David Huddelston, ‘Edmond Sexton
Pery, Viscount Pery, (1719-1806), in
Colin Matthew; Brian Harrison, and Laurence Goldman, (eds),Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press,
2004), online edition, http:// www.oxforddnb.com.
(hereafter referred to as Oxford DNB).
[xvi] Malcomson
‘Speaker Pery and the Pery Papers’ p.
55. n. 44.
[xvii] The Dunravens have been the subject
of much recent research: Odette Clarke, ‘'Caroline Wyndham-Quin, Countess of
Dunraven (1790-1870), An analysis of her discursive and material
legacy'(Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Limerick, 2010); Theresa
Hereward-Ryan, is 'An examination of the life of Edwin Wyndham Quin,
third earl of Dunraven, 1812-71' (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of
Limerick, 2010); and Michael Spillane,
‘The fourth earl of Dunraven, 1841-1926: a study of his contribution to the
emerging Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century’ (Unpublished Ph.D.
thesis, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2002).
[xviii] Charlotte Mary Murphy, ‘The Life and Politics of Thomas Spring
Rice, First Baron Monteagle of Brandon 1790-1866’ (Unpublished MA thesis,
University College Cork, 1991) and Bridget Hourican ‘Thomas Spring Rice
(1790-1866)’ in DIB.
[xix] For Monsell, see Potter, William
Monsell of Tervoe.
[xx] See Stuart Ball, ‘Bolton Meredith
Eyres Monsell, first Viscount Monsell (1881-1969)’, in Oxford DNB.
[xxi] For brief profiles of the most
important figures in the family, see Elizabeth Lee, revised M.C. Curthoys, ‘Sir
Stephen Edward de Vere (1812-1904)’, and Robert Welch, ‘Aubrey Thomas de Vere
(1814-1902), both in Oxford DNB and
Desmond McCabe, ‘Sir Aubrey de Vere (Hunt) 1788-1846’ ; Desmond McCabe ‘Sir
Stephen Edward de Vere (1812-1904)’ and Tom
Kelley and Linde Lunney, ‘Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814-1902)’ all in DIB.
[xxii] Grania R.
O’Brien and Hugh Weir, These My Friends and Forebears: The
O'Briens of Dromoland, (Whitegate, County Clare: Ballinakella Press, 1991).
[xxiii] All of the data concerning landed
estates is taken from John Bateman (ed.), The
Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, (Leicester: Leicester
University Press, 1971; Facsimile reprint of the edition of 1883.)
[xxiv] For Elinor Darwin, see Theo Snoddy, Dictionary of Irish Artists, 20th
Century, (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1996), pp 93-94.
[xxv] See Bridget Hourican, ‘Mary Ellen Spring Rice (1880-1924)’ in DIB.
[xxvi] Fitzpatrick,
‘Thomas Spring Rice and the Peopling of Australia’, p. 42.
[xxvii] For the
offices held by Group members, see Thom’s Irish Almanac and Official
Directory, (Dublin:
Thom, 1844-1880) and Thom’s Official
Directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, (Dublin:
Thom, 1881-1922), hereafter referred
to as Thom’s Directory, passim.
[xxviii] Ridden,
‘Making Good Citizens’, p. 218.
[xxix] Sr. M. Paraclita Reilly, Aubrey
de Vere: Victorian Observer (Univ. of Nebraska, 1953; Dublin: Clonmore
& Reynolds; London: Burnes, Oates & Washbourne 1956).
[xxx] Edwin Richard Wyndham-Quin, 3rd Earl of
Dunraven, (Edited by Margaret
Stokes), Notes on Irish Architecture,
(London: G. Bell, 1875-77).
[xxxi] For these building, see the website of the Irish Architectural
Archive, http// www.iarc.ie
[xxxii] Bateman, The Great Landowners
of Great Britain and Ireland, passim.
[xxxiii] Andrew
Shields, The Irish Conservative Party,
1852-1868. Land Politics and Religion, (Dublin and Portland, OR: Irish
Academic Press, 2007).
[xxxiv] For the economic revival of the
landlords, see W.E. Vaughan, Landlords
and Tenants in Mid-Victorian Ireland, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). For
their political position in this period, see D. George Boyce, , Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Search for
Stability (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1990), pp 124-53 and k. Theodore Hoppen, Elections,
Politics and Society in Ireland 1832-85 (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1984), pp 89-170.
[xxxv] Thom’s Directory, passim
[xxxvi] For the
Liberal Catholics see also Josef Altholz, The
Liberal Catholic Movement in England: The Rambler and its Contributors 1848-62 (London:
Burns and Oates, 1962) and Hugh A. MacDougall, The Acton-Newman Relations: The Dilemma of Christian Liberalism (New
York: Fordham University Press, 1962).
[xxxvii] Ridden, ‘Making Good Citizens’, p. 204.
[xxxviii] See Horace
Plunkett, Nobless Oblige - An Irish Rendering (Dublin; Maunsel, 1908).
[xxxix] Thomas
(Spring) Rice, An Inquiry into the Effects of the Irish Grand Jury Laws, (London:
Privately published, 1815), p. 12.
[xl] A number of books chart Smith O’Brien’s political evolution, see
for example Robert Sloan, William Smith O'Brien and the Young Irelander Rebellion of
1848 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000).
[xli] Parry, Political Elites,
pp 58-60.
[xlii] Ridden
‘Making Good Citizens’ pp 18-21 and 238-40.
[xliii] William
Sewell, ‘Romanism in Ireland’ in Quarterly Review,Vol. LXVII, No.
133, (December, 1840), p. 121.
mausoleum of the
1st Earl of Dunraven
Adare
Iverus Research Foundation is indebted to the author, Dr Matthew Potter, for his kind permission to reproduce this article.
photos: IRF