FROM THE ARCHIVES:The coming of Independence slowly brought changes in Irish life, such as the old social diaries in newspapers which continued for many years to mark the comings and goings of royalty and aristocrats. Changing social patterns were also mapped out in social columns such as the Echoes of the Town column by Kitty Clive in 1939, from which these excerpts are taken. – JOE JOYCE
EVERYONE HOPES for the weather tomorrow afternoon, when Dr Douglas Hyde gives his first garden party at the President’s House. Two thousand invitations have been issued for the event, and the President personally will receive the guests at the portico of the Lodge. He will not, however, shake hands with the two thousand guests, who will formally be introduced.
Excellent arrangements have been made for the parking of cars and the direction of visitors to the house. Marquees will be available should the weather prove unkindly, but the indications are that the guests will be able to enjoy the lovely surroundings in the Park under ideal conditions. Two bands – the Army Band and the Army Pipers’ Band – will play during the afternoon, and I hear that the function will not be without its touch of pageantry.
THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS
I had a number of interesting letters last week in reference to my note on Colonel Kilkelly and the old days of the College Races. Lady Hanson was one of the youngsters who lived for the important days, and she was telling me how the great crowds queued up to obtain admission. No one was impatient, for there was so much to see.
The diamonds of the ladies, the gay gowns, the feathers and parasols, all were eagerly and enviously viewed by those who went there to enjoy the brilliancy of the scene; and even then, she remarked, one heard the older people bewail “the good old days”, when a still more dazzling scene was their memory.
To the young people, however, the sports were the great thrill, and the advent of the bicycle the greatest of all. As she and his sisters – daughters of the late Professor Tyrrell – were among the first of the ladies to master the intricacies of the wheel, they were part of that wild band of boys and girls who broke through the lines when the five-mile race was taking place. Their shouts of “Go on, Kilkelly” resounded through the College Park, and when this pioneer went to the pavilion to receive his prize the rush was also remarkable. It was a veritable stampede.
What will the young people of today have to record when they reach the age to look back on the “good old days”? Every biographer seems to think his or her youthful social life outshone that of the younger generation, forgetting autres temps, autres mœurs.
THE GUEST LIST
Although there have been few large social functions during the past month, Dublin is entertaining with the most enjoyable of all forms of social intercourse – the intimate dinner party. This reminds me that the guest list, so important at official dinners, was, I thought, abandoned this century, except when a Royal personage was a guest. Then the names of the commoners must be submitted.
But there are still those who make it a point of finding out who the company consists of before accepting an invitation. And can one sometimes blame them? To be seated beside a bore during the long courses is anything but entertainment. Swift was a tyrant in this regard, and I hear that the late W. B. Yeats, who could not suffer fools gladly, made it a point of having the guest list submitted to him before accepting.
One could not imagine the poet listening to the lady beside him whose only interests were golf and bridge.
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