The Irish standard., 1901-04-06
A Fine City Was That on the Liffey in
the Eighteenth Century.
The Magnificent Edifices Erected in the
Days Before the Union.
Some Personages Then Living Within the
Fashionable Irish Capital.

Tho capital of Ireland was Il gay
and prosperous city when Il House OF
Peers and House of Commons stood
in the center of Dublin,' says a writer
in the Boston Republic. Spacious and
artistic-looling mansions Which flank
ed the park of Stephens Green We're
occupied by the peers and comn'oners
where Higgins, "the sham SQUIRE
who netted the blood money over the
arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. re-
sided side by side with John Philpot
Curran. This residence is No. 50
Stephen's Green, and is the home of
Sir Benjamin Guinness, one of the
wealthy porter kings of Ireland. Mora
house, which is now mendicity in
stitution, is located in Usher's Island,
and was in the period of Grattan's
parliament the residence of Lord and
Lady Moira, both Of whom We're ell
thusiastic sympathizers with the Unit
ed Irishmen of '9S, and who in the
dark, and troubled days gave ready
shelter and hospitality to the afflicted
Lady Pamela after her husbands ar
rest and death. Leinster House in Kill
dare street, the home of Lord and
Lady Fitzgerald, was searched one
day in March, 1893, by horde Of po-
licemen in quest Of the Geraldine lead
er. on which occasion a dramatic inter-
view took place between Major Swan,
the chief of the gang, and Lady PAM
ella:
.'This is an unpleasant duty" whin-
ed the major, addressing Pamela, "for
any gentleman to perform
"You are quite mistaken, sir" was
the reply of the bright and witty
French lady; sis is duty that no gen
tleman would perform"
The old Rotunda building, situated
at the upper end of O'Connell street,
is an historic edifice. Within it's walls
in 1882 the armed volunteers held a
convention, the resolutions passed by
whom struck such terror into the heart
Of the English government as did the
shots fired at the British troops by the
American patriots at Concord and
Lexington several years previously
On that occasion, both sides Of the en-,
trance to the Rotunda were lined with
Irish battalions, arranged in orange
and green uniforms, who presented
arms to the patriotic Earl Of Bristol
the Protestant bishop Of Derry, and
to Father Arthur O'Leary, a famous
Capuchin friar, who passed the files OF
the officers and soldiers linked arm in
arm, into the convention hall-thus
emphasizing the union Of all classes ant
creeds in the regeneration of the com
mon motherland. In North King
street, Dublin, is situated Trinity
church, where the illustrious Berkeley
was consecrated bishop of Cloyne
county Cork. Before his consecratior
he was egregiously fooled by the Brit
ish government, the members of whicl
promised him material support in hiE
missionary ambition for the conversion
Of the Inhabitants of Hawaii and thu
Bermudas, but failed to furnish hin
with the necessary funds after he hat
landed in this country. He had to live
on Thoreau's fare Of baked beans ant
pure spring water for few years il
Rhode Island, vainly expecting aid
and eventually recrossed the Atlantic
disgusted with the London cabinet.
Dublin's finest and most imposing
mansions of today were built durin'
the last eighteen years Of the eight
eenth century-the College Green par
lament, the customs house and othe
buildings-monumen to the glory o
the ante-union era. Most Of the pri
vate residences of Dublin's leading
citizens, and those of the peers ant
commoners, are now most all dilapi
dated structures, or else. serve as hos
pitfalls or souper resorts The slow
but sure. decay, in which Ireland fel
after the nefarious work of Pitt ant
Castlereagh was felt nowhere NOR
keenly or bitterly than in that quain
old city on the banks Of the Liffey.
Richard Cumberland. an English his
torian, gives us the following pen-and
ink picture of high life in Dublin il
the ante-union era: "In the grea
houses I met promiscuous assembl.
of politicians. lawyers. soldiers and d
vines. The profusion of their table
struck me with surprise. Nothing tina
I had seen in England could rival til
Polish aristocratic magnificence o
Partisan luxury of the Irish capital