Medieval Dublin: Small, Smelly, Busy & Holy

In late medieval times, walled Dublin was very small, confined to the area between Merchant’s Quay and Wood Quay and inland for 300-400 metres to include the area around Christ Church and Dublin Castle. Dublin had suburbs outside the walls, along today’s Dame Street to College Green, around St Patrick’s Cathedral, along Thomas Street and James’s Street, and across the Liffey in Oxmantown.

Dublin had a notorious hygiene problem caused by human and animal waste. Henry VII learned that “pestilential exhalations” hung over his city of Dublin, preventing his administrators reaching Dublin Castle and visitors coming to the city. In the early 16th century Dublin city authority continued to fight a losing battle with the disposal of waste.

Late medieval Dublin had an impressive water supply service set up in about 1250, by which the river Poddle, re-energised by water diverted from the Dodder, delivered 2.7 million litres into the city every day. While the supply was regularly under threat from polluting animals and fishers who interfered with the water course, it was patrolled by bailiffs and overall it worked well.

The Liffey estuary and Dublin bay was always badly silted and ships setting out from the quays to sail to Chester found it tricky to get out of the estuary and the bay until they had “clear road” at Poolbeg. The problem was never solved until ships’ berthage was moved east of the city in modern times.

Most job opportunities came from the craft guilds – training for a boy or girl over seven years leading to qualification in a craft such as merchant, miller, tailor, sadler, butcher, smith or tanner. Training in about 50 such trades was available in Dublin provided the apprentice could pay the registration fees. Not to diminish the crafts which needed both manual dexterity and intelligence, other work could be done that was more intellectually-based – clerk, secretary, scribe, legal notary, lawyer, clergyman. To enter these employments required education in Dublin where there were very few schools, or education abroad in an English university. In both cases a prerequisite was family financial support.

Without a recognised skill one could work occasionally as a labourer, but there was the danger of falling through the social net and relying on begging. These beggars were not welcome in Dublin (beggars specifically being named as persons who must leave the city). Those in serious poverty could enter the hospital of St John near Thomas Street, the institute having 113 beds in 1373 and 50 beds in 1539.

In business, everyone had debtors and creditors and agreed a date of settlement. If a dispute arose, merchants had access to a merchants’ court where quick decisions were made by the justice often within an hour of the disputants entering the court. These courts were called pie powder courts (pie poudré, French) or “dusty feet” courts, a reminder that those who used the court were busy merchants on the move who had come into court off the street in their travelling clothes.

Final settlements with debtors and creditors came at the time of death when one’s will was processed. Debtors and creditors would normally reside 5-10km from the testator, but mayhave been located 15km distant. At his death, John Mold of Malahide had debts to pay across the Irish Sea in Conway (Wales) and in Bristol.

Late medieval Dublin had a symbiotic relationship with Chester, Dublin merchants bringing goods to the city in the mid-15th and early-16th century. Dublin exported skins, hides, fish and textiles to Chester and brought back local salt and continental goods. Merchants frequently sailed for Chester, but also regularly used factors or on-board agents to bring their goods across the Irish Sea. John Wilkynson was such a person, working for 25 merchants out of Dublin, Howth and Drogheda, making 39 agreements with them, and sailing 5,000 miles in one year. Christina Clerke also worked as a factor out of Dublin and sailed over 1,000 miles in a year.

Trade in Dublin was regulated by the city’s authority so that everyone involved would make a reasonable profit and that the system would be fair to all. The authority also concerned itself with maintaining standards of hygiene in the fish and meat trade, and in particular with the regulation of supplies of ale, cereals, fish and meat. The authority’s greatest fear was
that the city, largely occupied by non food-producers, would run short of cereals in winter.
On occasions, it was forced to search barns in the city to find stockpiles of grain and put them on the market to avoid famine in the city.

The traditional church was loved by the laity, despite the strict regime in which sinners were publicly denounced on Sundays and those who ignored the church in legal matters were excommunicated. Church authorities visited monasteries and convents and pointed out their failings. While expensive indulgences were occasionally preached, at parish level income from indulgence offerings seems to have been modest enough. There was a long tradition in the medieval church of devotion to Our Lady and of praying to her as an intermediary. The
laity regarded as most sacred the moment of consecration in the Mass and were capable of developing a personal relationship with the crucified Christ.

The church changed most significantly in the late medieval period – the laity could arrange for Masses to be said with their chosen selection of readings, at times and for reasons required by their lay religious group (chantry), and lay proctors (churchwardens) were elected by the laity at parish level to run the parish in all material matters. In the late medieval period, the laity began to pray before images of saints rather than solely before relics as heretofore.

When the Reformation came to Dublin in the late 1530s, offerings at shrines were stolen by the state (£500,000 in today’s money) in Dublin city and county, monasteries were closed and buildings, lands and leases were confiscated and redistributed. Government officers sought and received monastic buildings at Celbridge, Grace Dieu and Holmpatrick, Co Dublin. Some monastic buildings were used by lawyers (King’s Inns) and for the storage of munitions. Liturgical books were censored, references to relics, Thomas Becket and the Pope being excised.

Source : Social Life in Pre-Reformation Dublin, 1450-1540 by Peadar Slattery is published by Four Courts Press.

Extracts from The Irish Times.

The Missing: Bill Ends 7 Year Wait for Presumption of Death

CHARLIE FLANAGAN HAS welcomed the passing of a new law which allows the families of missing people to declare them as dead. 

The Civil Law (Presumption of Death) Bill, which was passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas on the 3rd July, provides for the establishment of a register of presumed deaths – meaning families will no longer have to wait seven years to deal with estates.

Speaking after the Bill completed its final stages in the Seanad, the Minister for Justice and Equality said: “The families of missing persons often feel like they are living in limbo.

“I hope that the Bill we have passed today will give them some measure of much-needed closure by enabling them to put the affairs of their missing loved ones in order.”

The Bill will allow the families of missing people to apply for a ‘presumption of death order’. This order has the same effect in law as the registration of a death under the Civil Registration Act 2004.

In practical terms, this means that the estate of the missing person can be administered and the missing person’s financial and property affairs can be managed and put in order.

The legislation also provides that a presumption of death order has the effect of bringing a marriage or civil partnership with the missing person to an end.

The Bill had cross-party support and Flanagan acknowledged “the positive and collaborative approach” taken by government and the Bill’s sponsors, senators Marie-Louise O’Donnell, Lynn Ruane and Colm Burke.

 Source: The Journal

Long Gone Occupations Revealed in Irish Deaths Records from 1878 Available Free Online

This summer a further tranche of Ireland’s historical Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths records have now been made available to view free online at irishgenealogy.ie.

Births are available already from 1864 to 1918 and marriages from 1864 to 1943; and now death records ranging from 1878 to 1968 have been added to the free website.

 Included are the November 30th, 1967 death certificate for poet Patrick Kavanagh and for his nemesis Brendan Behan, who died on March 20th, 1964.

 This digitisation process is part of a joint initiative by the Departments of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

 The records were prepared and uploaded by the Civil Registration Service and officials from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

 Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan described this addition of further years of historic registers of births, marriages and deaths as “an exciting development in family history research for Irish people here and all Irish descendants around the world.”

 She noted how “since this online service became available in 2016 over 2.1 million visitors to the website have viewed these records.”

 Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty described the Civil Registration Service as “one of the State’s essential services and one of the greatest resources for those establishing their family histories. Providing this open and free access to older records and register entries will further support the efforts of many family historians throughout the world”.

 Research by the ancestry.ie has established how these historic registers show that many of our ancestors’ jobs have become extinct.

 Included would be that including a snob, someone who repaired shoes; a knocker upper, whose job was to tap on the windows of workers to wake them for work ;and rat catchers who, as the name suggests, had a job catching rats in a specific area.

 Also gone is the job of lamp-lighter, responsible for lighting and extinguishing street lamps around cities and towns; the linotype operator, who used hot metal to produce the daily newspaper; elevator opeator; fishwife - a woman who sold fish; town crier, who shouted news at street corners; and, a tweenie or junior domestic maid who helped older housemaids and cooks.

Ireland Has Longest List of PeopleYou Cannot Marry Amongst EU Countries. Why?

OPINION PIECE

According to the Central Statistics Office, approximately 22,000 marriages are registered in Ireland annually. While the figures for 2018 have yet to be released, over 1,500 same-sex marriages have already been registered since the commencement of the Marriage Act 2015. However, although same-sex marriage is now recognised, various other categories of couples are still prohibited from marrying under Irish law.

On the basis of "consanguinity" - from the same bloodline -  a woman is prohibited from marrying a range of blood relatives including her grandfather, father, uncle, brother, son, grandson or nephew. Equivalent prohibitions apply to men.

On the basis of "affinity" - having a previous marriage to a person - a woman is not permitted to marry certain step-relatives or in-laws such as the former husband of her grandmother, mother, aunt, daughter, niece or granddaughter. She is equally prohibited from marrying her former husband's grandfather, father, uncle, son, nephew or grandson. Again, equivalent prohibitions apply to men. 

For centuries, a person was also prohibited from marrying their brother- or sister-in-law. Robust campaigning throughout much of the 19th century led to legislative reform in the early 1900s permitting such marriages where the spouse was deceased.

While the resulting legislation continued to prohibit a person from marrying the sibling of a divorced (as opposed to deceased) spouse, the High Court effectively removed this restriction in its 2006 decision in O’Shea and O’Shea v Ireland & the Attorney General.

Despite this limited relaxation of the prohibitions, the range of forbidden relationships in Ireland is still much wider than in many other countries. Although most jurisdictions generally prohibit relationships between a person and their direct ancestor or descendant, as well as relationships between brothers and sisters, marital relationships between aunts/nephews or uncles/nieces are often allowed.

Whatever the merits of lifting the restrictions on such consanguineous or blood relationships, it is the legitimacy of the prohibitions on the basis of affinity that is especially open to question in Ireland.

In England and Wales, relationships between in-laws are allowed and the only prohibited relationships based on affinity are those between a step-parent and step-child or step-grandparent and step-grandchild.

In Canada and Australia, there are no limits placed on the ability of a couple related by affinity to marry and all such restrictions have been abolished.

In 2015, then Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, signalled that her department and the Department of Social Protection were considering a review of the law in this area, cautiously acknowledging that the prohibitions preventing in-laws from marrying "may be outmoded".

It is hard to see what good is served by these prohibitions based on affinity and the government would do well to pursue such a review.

Any resulting reform would arguably represent the last step in the modernisation of Irish marriage law. Since the introduction of divorce in 1996, incremental constitutional and legislative amendments have reformed not only who can marry whom but also the ways in which couples may choose to get married.

Facilitated by this evolving regulatory framework, and no doubt reflecting wider social changes in Ireland, Irish marriage practice has changed dramatically in recent years.

The most remarkable shift is the fall in the number of religious marriage ceremonies conducted. In 1987, 96.5 percent of all marriage ceremonies conducted in Ireland were religious ceremonies. 20 years later, this share had fallen to 77 percent.

Statistics for 2017 show a further decline with just 63 percent of couples choosing a religious ceremony. In light of its former dominance,  it is unsurprising that the single biggest fall in this category has been recorded for marriages conducted according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church.

In contrast to 1987 when 93.3 percent of all marriages involved Roman Catholic ceremonies, just over half (50.9 percent) of all marriages conducted in the State in 2017 were according to Roman Catholic marriage rites. 

Yet not all religious denominations in Ireland are witnessing declines.

Although just a tiny fraction (0.3 percent) of all marriages solemnised in 1987 were according to the rites of religions other than the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland or the Presbyterian Church, the diversity of "other religions" represented in modern marriage practice – and the volume of marriages solemnised by such religions, which now stands at 5.1 percent – is striking.

Over 1,000 marriages are solemnised annually by the Spiritualist Union of Ireland alone. 

Notwithstanding these gains for minority religions, it is clear that the fastest growing marriage ceremonies in Ireland are secular ceremonies.

First recognised through the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2012, secular marriage ceremonies are most commonly conducted by the Humanist Association of Ireland.

Despite their relative novelty in the Irish wedding market, statistics for 2017 show such secular ceremonies now account for almost eight percent of marriages. The final category of marriage ceremony, namely civil ceremonies conducted by a civil registrar, represent a steady 28 to 29 percent of marriage ceremonies conducted each year in Ireland. This is a stark contrast to 1987 when civil ceremonies accounted for just 3.5 percent of all marriage ceremonies performed. 

However a marriage is celebrated, it continues to hold legal, cultural, social and (often) religious importance for couples in Ireland. In this context, it is hoped that reform will be forthcoming to remove any archaic and unjustifiable barriers, such as those based on affinity which prevent partners from becoming spouses under Irish law.

Source Kathryn O’Sullivan, University of Limerick

David Norris On 40 Years of Saving North Great George’s Street

David Norris outside his home in North Great George's Street

In the mid-1970s I was running a gay disco on Parnell Square. Numbers began to fall dramatically and it turned out that two enterprising capitalists had opened a commercial disco just around the corner. I had never heard of North Great George’s Street but I went round to case the joint. Once in the street I fell in love with it and decided to purchase a house, which I did in the autumn of 1978.

Shortly after the purchase I was walking down the street one evening when I saw lights on on a first floor with two people, Brendan and Josephine O’Connell, up on scaffolding restoring a magnificent Rococo ceiling. They saw me looking, Josephine opened the window and shouted down to me. She and Brendan invited me in to admire the work and have a slice of her home-made apple pie.

I discovered that there were already people restoring but in isolation. There were people such as Harold Clarke, Desiree Shortt (whose house number at number 38 has what I consider the finest 18th-century doorcase in Dublin) and Tom Kiernan. 

I am a political animal and I decided we needed concerted action. I called a meeting in my house in June 1979 and so the North Great George’s Street Preservation Society was born in my drawing room on that day. Within a short space of time we attracted attention, and Lewis Clohessy of the Heritage Council gave us a grant of £3,000. Some members wanted small individual grants but I persuaded them that we should blow the lot on a public exhibition. 

Exhibition
We used a lot of before-and-after photographs to show what could be done. We featured an exploded map of Dublin as the centrepiece showing Parnell Square in the middle with Dominick Street and its attendant stable lane Dominick Place on one side, North Great George’s Street on the other with its attendant stable lane Rutland Place. The two once-magnificent 18th-century streets were therefore demonstrated as direct parallels.

There was a photograph of Dominick Street in 1909 and one showing the devastation caused by corporation demolition. On the other side was a photograph of North Great George’s Street in 1909 and a contemporary photograph with a large question mark. I wrote a booklet for the exhibition, illustrated by Tom Kiernan. It was a huge success, drawing the presence of the lord mayor of Dublin and government ministers.

The house next door to me was in great trouble, with the back wall held up by raking shores (temporary supports). Dublin Corporation had tried to resolve the situation but without success. I laid in wait and built up a case which was ultimately successful, with the owners ordered to rebuild the back wall and restore the house.

I also continued the battle for the conservation of Georgian Dublin in the Senate, pointing in particular to the problematic fate of properties numbers five and six on the street. They once housed the Revenue Commissioners social club, which caused a lot of late-night disturbance and which I put out of operation by another court action. Despite the minister’s assurance I went around one day and found a lorry at the back of the properties with a wrecking ball ready to go. I got the minister out of a meeting and the wreckers were called off.

Ownership transfer
I got myself involved in the positive transfer of ownership of a number of houses in the street. I did this by researching who the 18th-century builders were, who did the plasterwork, the extent of that plasterwork, who currently owned the building and whether it could come on the market. Altogether I calculate I have been involved in the cases of 12 out of the 48 houses on the street.

One of these was Thomond House. When I got the house sold the owner was very grateful and asked for my fee. I said there was no fee but that I had noticed that the lock on the back of the door matched exactly where a similar lock had been removed from my door before I bought the house. A screwdriver and some elbow grease later and my front door is now graced by a magnificent 18th century brass-bound mahogany lock.

One of the other buildings under great threat was number 35, once the home of the earls of Kenmare. I knew that James Joyce had been educated at the top of the street in Belvedere College and that his brother Charles had lived at the lower end. There was good chance therefore that number 35 was mentioned in Ulysses, and so it was. In 1904 number 35 was the location of the dancing academy of Prof Denis J Maginni, a colourful eccentric who floats through several episodes of Ulysses. This was enough to prise it out of the corporation and over the years we have gathered several million euro for the restoration, which is now complete. 

Another house in whose sale I was involved was number 50. The house had magnificent plaster ceilings and original door fittings. When I went in first I was very concerned about some large bulges in the wallpaper. I feared that what was concealed was a massive outbreak of dry rot. However, when I pulled the paper away it revealed some wonderful classical plasterwork featuring masonic symbols in mint condition.

The lower end of the street contained several sites of dereliction and a number of distressed houses. I first tried to rescue the surviving houses by proposing a hostel for university students. This failed because of insurance problems and a lack of interest from the universities. The corporation then proposed a set of out-of-scale local authority housing. I possessed myself of a copy of the plans and leaked them to The Irish Times, which put them on the front page under an ironic caption “Corporation Georgian?”. I had rescued four doorcases from the demolished houses and while I kept the one that stood at the door of Charles Joyce’s home and re-erected it in my garden, I gave the others to the corporation to use as models for the reinstated houses which I eventually persuaded them to build. 

The most controversial project was the proposed erection of a set of wrought-iron gates or railings at the lower end of the street. This came to me in a dream and when I recounted it to the society I got unanimous backing. The architect John O’Connell and I conducted a search and actually found a set of superb gates. These were late 18th-century wrought-iron with lantern emplacements. They had been the garden gates of Santry Court and belonged to Pino Harris, who generously donated them to the society. 

Irish begrudgery
However, the gates provided the classic opportunity for Irish begrudger. A tiny dissident element stirred things up and a petition was launched with names from all over Ireland and the UK, most of whom had never set foot in North Great George’s Street at all. Some letters indeed were even forged. Leaflets were distributed suggesting that we were a collection of snobs intent on excluding the lower orders. This was the reverse of the truth. In fact, the idea was to stop the rat run of stolen cars, and to privilege pedestrian access by leaving the side gates on the pavement open 24/7. 

This did not prevent newspapers printing dishonest illustrations showing the street closed to pedestrian access. Moreover there was a social aspect to the question that was not the one suggested. In truth there were many corporation estates in the immediate vicinity that had a closed access to their streets for precisely the same reasons. A compromise was eventually reached, the street is now one way and trees have been planted at the lower end. Some of the trees have died and the others obscure the view of the street and Belvedere, which the railings would not have done. I have inquired several times about the fate of the gates but they appear to have disappeared and may even have been destroyed.

I felt that since a major policy of mine had been defeated I had no option but to resign while remaining loyal to the society. We have had half a dozen chairman since then, including the present chairman, Tom McKeown. One of most outstanding was Muireann Noonan. She initiated the window box competition and she also entered us for a national competition, Pride of Place, which we won.

Over the years I have been asked to engage in fire-brigade action to save Georgian buildings. I have given moral support but I refused to let my focus stray from North Great George’s Street. I felt that if we succeeded in North Great George’s Street this would provide a valuable headline for other restoration projects. After 40 years, and refreshed by new members, the North Great George’s Street Preservation Society is going strong and fighting the good fight. Happy birthday.

Source: The Irish Times

Don't Panic! Don't Panic!

As the Brexit drama unfolds, we have been inundated with queries from the UK regarding people waiting to receive the birth certificate of an Irish relative so they can apply for an Irish passport.

We are working through the huge voulme of applications presently but the volume of applications is unprecedented

However some applicants seem to be particularly anxious to obtain their certificate because they are under the impression that they must apply for the Irish passport BEFORE the UK leaves the EU.

It is worth taking note that the Irish State has always allowed people to apply for an Irish passport through providing proof they have descent through having a relative born in Ireland.

This service was offered BEFORE the UK voted to leave the EU.

It will continue to be available f the UK leaves the EU.

It will continue to be available if the UK does not leave the EU

It will continue to be available if the UK leaves the EU with a deal.

And it will continue to be available if the UK leave the EU without a deal.

In the words of Lance Corporal Jones - "Don't panic, don't panic! " - because there is no closing date for applications for Irish passports.

A Marriage Certificate: A Key to Finding Irish Birth Records

We have received many queries from applicants in the UK and the US who are trying to locate the birth records of their Irish parents and grandparents to apply for Irish citizenship and hence an Irish passport.

Many applicants have sparse details about their Irish relatives but we recommend that people seek out the marriage certificate of their Irish relatives BEFORE applying for a Irish Birth Certificate for that long forgotten Irish ancestor.

A Marriage Certificate - from Ireland or indeed any country - can be a source of valuable information when trying to track down Irish relatives.

Firstly the certificate may give the date of birth of the Bride and Groom, a piece of information many applicants lack.

Alternatively the Marriage Certificate may give the AGE of the Bride and Groom on their wedding date, allowing the searcher to estimate a relatives year of birth.

In some cases the marriage certificate will state both parties to the marriage were FULL AGE at the date of marriage.

This means both parties were 16 years of age or over on their wedding day, which means you can estimate a rough year of birth so you discount any year of birth that makes them less than 16 on the year of the wedding date.

The marriage certificate will also provide the name of the Father of the Bride and Groom AND their Father's occupation.

The occupation of a father can be very useful when trying to sift through birth entries that are near matches to a sought birth record.

Some later marriage certificates MAY include the names of the mother's of the wedding couple.

Finally some marriage certificates will state where the Bride and Groom were born in Ireland which is another vital jigsaw piece when tracing an Irish ancestor.