Given that a number of well-known Irishmen of late have been only too delighted to accept honours from the British monarchy, it seems likely that the reinstigation of a viceregal court at Dublin Castle would meet with widespread approval. After all, as has been much noted, in an extraordinary number of respects, particularly economic, this State seems to have been perfectly willing during the past decade to become a British province in all but name.
There was, of course, always that sector of the Irish population which rejoiced in the practice (if not in the name) of being Castle Catholics. The Irish architect P.L. Dickinson, from self-imposed post-Independence exile in London, wrote a wonderfully lofty memoir called The Dublin of Yesterday, in which he remembered how low standards at the castle had fallen by the beginning of the 20th century. "Without being a snob," he protested unconvincingly, "it was no pleasure, and rather embarrassing, to meet the lady at dinner who had measured you for your shirts the week before."
How very different circumstances had been during the years at the start of Joseph Robins's survey. Through the first decades of the 18th century, as Ireland settled into her colonial status, successive lords lieutenant established what was, in effect, a shrunken copy of the court of St James, making Dublin Castle more exclusive than inclusive in character. Indeed, as Robins notes, it was only in 1759 that Roman Catholics were officially received for the first time in the castle, the lord lieutenant of the time graciously informing those before him "that as long as they conducted themselves with duty and affection they could not fail to receive His Majesty's protection".
That this advice was heeded becomes apparent when it is seen how quickly Catholics established a strong presence at Dublin Castle, especially in the post-Union period, to the disgust of many members of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy who found themselves numerically overwhelmed at the annual circuit of balls, levees and drawingroom gatherings. And, as this book's title indicates, it is the social rather than political aspect of the viceregal court which preoccupies the author. His sources are widespread and on occasion have not been consulted before by historians. But Robins does not always present the material to best advantage or indeed allow his text to glitter as much as did the "perfect blaze of diamonds" worn by the second Duchess of Leinster at a castle ball in February 1782. And he is also guilty of permitting confusion over titles on several occasions, so that a Duke of Ormond is described as an earl and the wife of a ducal lord lieutenant has been relegated to the rank of countess. "Without being a snob", surely these are errors which would never have been tolerated by regular attenders at the viceregal court?
Robert O'Byrne is an author and an Irish Times journalist
By Tim Fanning
Vocationalism and Social Catholicism in Twentieth Century Ireland. By Don O'Leary. Irish Academic Press. 190pp, £35
Vocationalism originated in the response of Catholic intellectuals to the social evils they associated with laissez faire capitalism and socialism in the 19th century. By the 1930s, the Catholic social movement was well developed in continental Europe but it was not until the publication of the papal encyclical Quadragesimo Anno in 1931 that substantial interest grew in Ireland. The focus of Don O'Leary's book is the response of the Fianna Fail government led by Eamon de Valera to the vocationalist lobby. Of particular interest is de Valera's ambiguous attitude to a politically threatening idea that, nevertheless, was grounded in papal social teaching. O'Leary argues de Valera was disingenuous in his professed acceptance of the vocationalist concept. Certainly, the unwieldy structure and the broad terms of reference of the Commission on Vocational Organisation established by de Valera in 1939 stalled the development of vocational organisation in Ireland. When the commission's report in 1944 was finally published, a number of prominent Fianna Fail politicians expressed their disapproval at its findings. The Minister for Industry and Commerce, Sean Lemass, became involved in a heated debate with the chairman of the commission, the Archbishop of Galway, Michael Browne, over criticism of his department. Ultimately, however, the Irish political situation was unsuited to the specific recommendations of the vocational lobby, and after 1945, sweeping reforms across Europe made the creation of a Catholic vocational state increasingly unlikely.
Tim Fanning is a freelance journalist