31 May 2017

How Thackeray found ‘the fragrance
of the Congo on the Shannon shore’

Thackeray was taken aback by his first impressions when he arrived by boat at the quays in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; click on image for full-screen view)

Patrick Comerford

I was naturally drawn to the war poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon when I was writing about Limerick’s literary connections in recent days. Both poets were stationed in Limerick 100 years ago, were strongly critical in their work of modern warfare, and wrote affectionately of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick.

Robert Graves was a grandson of Bishop Charles Graves of Limerick, and visited his grave in the cathedral churchyard; Siegfried Sassoon found that ‘by the time I had been at Limerick a week I had found something closely resembling peace of mind,’ and later recalled the ‘bells tolling from Limerick Cathedral; much nicer than sirens from Bryant and May’s factory.’

A very different writer who had a very different impression of Limerick and of Saint Mary’s Cathedral was the 19th century English novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863).

Thackeray was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society. During the Victorian era, he was ranked second only to Charles Dickens, although he is much less widely read today.

In Thackeray’s day, some commentators including Anthony Trollope ranked his History of Henry Esmond as his greatest work, perhaps because it expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, as did some of his other later novels.

The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) tells of the exploits of a fictional 18th century Irish adventurer. It was filmed as Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick in 1975, starring Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee and Hardy Krüger, with many of the scenes shot on location in Ireland.

In the 1840s, Thackeray had some success with two travel books, The Paris Sketch Book and The Irish Sketch Book (1843). His Irish travel book appealed to British prejudices of the day, and landed Thackeray the position of Punch’s Irish expert, often under the pseudonym Hibernis Hibernior. In this role, Thackeray was chiefly responsible for Punch’s hostile and condescending depictions of the Irish during the Great Famine.

Thackeray had spent four months travelling around Ireland in 1842 and wrote an account of his journey in The Irish Sketch Book, which remains one of the most detailed and colourful surveys of Irish hotels ever written.

In Limerick, he stayed at ‘one of the best inns in Ireland - the large, neat, and prosperous one kept by Mr Cruise.’ This was the Royal Mail Coach Hotel or Cruise’s Hotel. There He was delighted to meet the proprietor, which he claimed was a rare occurrence in Ireland where hoteliers ‘commonly (and very naturally) prefer riding with the hounds, or manly sports, to attendance on their guests.’

He arrived in Limerick by boat, and his first impressions seem to have taken him aback: ‘… you are, at first, half led to believe that you had arrived in a second Liverpool, so tall are the warehouses and broad the quays: so neat and trim a street of near a mile which stretches before you.’

He found the men handsome and the women pretty: ‘If the women of the place are pretty, indeed the vulgar are scarcely less so, I never saw a greater number of kind, pleasing, clever-looking faces among any sort of people.’

‘The great street of Limerick is altogether a very brilliant and animated sight’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

He was overcome by the sight of King George’s Street (now O’Connell Street): ‘The houses are bright red – the street is full and gay, carriages and cars in plenty go jingling by – dragoons in red are every now and then clattering up the street, and as upon every car which passes with ladies in it you are sure (I don’t know how it is) to see a pretty one, the great street of Limerick is altogether a very brilliant and animated sight.’

However, his first impressions soon faded: ‘But even this mile-long street does not, in a few minutes, appear to be so wealthy and prosperous as it shows at first glance: for of the population that throngs the streets, two-fifths are bare-footed women, and two-fifths more ragged men: and the most part of the shops which have a grand show with them, appear when looked into, to be no better than they should be, being empty make-shift looking places, with their best goods outside.’

He contrasted the lives he saw on the streets of Limerick: ‘Here, in this handsome street too, is a handsome club-house, with plenty of idlers you may be sure, lolling at the portico; likewise you see numerous young officers, with very tight waists and absurd brass shell-epaulettes to their little absurd brass shell epaulettes to their little absurd frock coats, walking the pavement – the dandies of the street. Then you behold troops of pear, apple and plum women, selling very raw, green looking fruit, which indeed, it is a wonder that anyone should eat and live.’

Thackeray wrote disparagingly of ‘the nasty streets’ and ‘the still more nasty back lanes’ of Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

In Irishtown, Thackeray witnessed a different side of Limerick, and wrote of ‘a labyrinth of busy swarming poverty and squalid commerce as never was seen … Here every house almost was half a ruin and swarming with people.’

He wrote: ‘Look out of the nasty streets into the still more nasty back lanes; there they are, sprawling at every door and court, paddling in every puddle; and in about a fair proportion to every six children an old woman – a very old, blear-eyed, ragged woman – who makes believe to sell something out of a basket, and is perpetually calling upon the name of the Lord … In these crowded streets, where all are beggars, the beggary is but small: only the very old and hideous venture to ask for a penny, otherwise the competition would be too great.’

As he crossed the river, he noticed Barrington’s Hospital, which he described as ‘a handsome hospital.’ But he was not at all impressed by Saint Mary’s Cathedral nearby. He described it as ‘the old cathedral, a barbarous old turreted edifice – of the fourteenth century it is said: how different to the sumptuous elegance which characterises the English and continental churches of the same period.’

Some years after visiting Limerick, Thackeray caused offence with his comic song ‘The Battle of Limerick,’ which trivialises the Young Ireland movement and mocks and mimics Irish accents – although William Carleton remarked that he ‘writes very well about Ireland, for an Englishman.’

At the height of Young Ireland activities in 1848, the Confederate leaders, William Smith O’Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher, proposed to make a tour of the main towns of Munster to review the local Repealers. The tour began at Limerick, where a soirée was held on 29 April. But the presence among the guests of John Mitchel, who had recently given offence by an attack on the memory of Daniel O’Connell, inflamed the mob, and in the fray which ensued O’Brien was struck by a man who had failed to recognise him.

The Battle of Limerick, by William Makepeace Thackeray

Ye Genii of the nation,
Who look with veneration,
And Ireland’s desolation onsaysingly deplore;
Ye sons of General Jackson,
Who thrample on the Saxon,
Attend to the thransaction upon Shannon shore.

When William, Duke of Schumbug,
A tyrant and a humbug,
With cannon and with thunder on our city bore,
Our fortitude and valliance
Insthructed his battalions
To rispict the galliant Irish upon Shannon shore.

Since that capitulation,
No city in this nation
So grand a reputation could boast before,
As Limerick prodigious,
That stands with quays and bridges,
And the ships up to the windies of the Shannon shore.

A chief of ancient line,
’Tis William Smith O’Brine,
Reprisints this darling Limerick, this ten years or more:
O the Saxons can’t endure
To see him on the flure,
And thrimble at the Cicero from Shannon shore!

This valiant son of Mars
Had been to visit Par’s
That land of Revolution, that grows the tricolor;
And to welcome his returrn
From pilgrimages furren,
We invited him to tay on the Shannon shore!

Then we summoned to our board
Young Meagher of the Sword;
’Tis he will sheathe that battle-axe in Saxon gore:
And Mitchil of Belfast
We bade to our repast,
To dthrink a dish of coffee on the Shannon shore.

Convaniently to hould
These patriots so bould,
We tuck the opportunity of Tim Doolan’s store;
And with ornamints and banners
(As becomes gintale good manners)
We made the lovliest tay-room upon Shannon shore.

’Twould binifit your sowls,
To see the butthered rowls,
The sugar-tongs and sangwidges and craim galyore,
And the muffins and the crumpets,
And the band of harps and thrumpets,
To celebrate the sworry upon Shannon shore.

Sure the Imperor of Bohay
Would be proud to dthrink the tay
That Misthress Biddy Rooney for O’Brine did pour,
And, since the days of Strongbow,
There never was such Congo –
Mitchil dthrank six quarts of it – by Shannon shore.

But Clarndon and Corry
Connellan beheld this sworry
With rage and imulation in their black heart’s core;
And they hired a gang of ruffins
To interrupt the muffins
And the fragrance of the Congo on the Shannon shore.

When full of tay and cake,
O’Brine began to spake;
But juice a one could hear him, for a sudden roar
Of a ragamuffin rout
Began to yell and shout,
And frighten the propriety of Shannon shore.

As Smith O’Brine harangued,
They batthered and they banged;
Tim Doolan’s doors and windies down they tore;
They smashed the lovely windies
(Hung with muslin from the Indies),
Purshuing of their shindies upon Shannon shore.

With throwing of brickbats,
Drowned puppies and dead rats,
These ruffin democrats themselves did lower;
Tin kettles, rotten eggs,
Cabbage-stalks, and wooden legs,
They flung among the patriots of Shannon Shore.

O the girls began to scrame
And upset the milk and crame;
And the honourable gintlemen, they cursed and swore:
And Mitchil of Belfast,
’Twas he that looked aghast,
When they roasted him in effigy by Shannon shore.

O the lovely tay was spilt
On that day of Ireland’s guilt;
Says Jack Mitchil, “I am kilt! Boys, where’s the back door?
’Tis a national disgrace:
Let me go and veil me face;”
And he boulted with quick pace from the Shannon shore.

“Cut down the bloody horde!”
Says Meagher of the Sword,
“This conduct would disgrace any blackamore;”
But the best use Tommy made
Of his famous battle blade
Was to cut his own stick from the Shannon shore.

Immortal Smith O’Brine
Was raging like a line;
’Twould have done your sowl good to have heard him roar;
In his glory he arose,
And he rush’d upon his foes,
But they hit him on the nose by the Shannon shore.

Then the Futt and the Dthragoons
In squadthrons and platoons,
With their music playing chunes, down upon us bore;
And they bate the rattatoo,
But the Peelers came in view,
And ended the shaloo on the Shannon shore.


Two examples of 19th century
stucco on Limerick’s streets

The Olio e Farina Bottega on Little Catherine Street… an example of Limerick’s collection of stucco façades (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing yesterday about the way the streets of Limerick are richly laden with fine example of 19th and early 20th century stucco work, and I wrote how one exuberant example of this stucco work is found at the Mechanics Institute on Hartstonge Street.

Two further examples of this stucco work can be seen in the O&F Bottega at Nos 2 and 3 Little Catherine Street, on the corner with Limerick Lane, and the Athenaeum on Cecil Street.

Olio e Farina, where I had lunch last week, is housed in a substantial pair of buildings on a narrow street in the heart of Limerick. These two buildings, with a unique classically-inspired stucco composition, are unified by the elaborate yet curious façade treatment and a large gable and decorative shopfront, so that these premises add to the architectural interest of this part of the city centre.

The building incorporates neighbouring three-storey and four-storey buildings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

This four-bay, three-storey building was built ca 1810, and is made up of a three-storey building on the south side and a four-storey building on the north side. A shopfront was inserted to the ground floor and both structures were given stucco façades in 1827, according to two plaques that declare: ‘Established 1827.’

There is a pitched natural slate roof to the four-storey section, with a large dormer inserted to the front and the rear. There is a heavy parapet entablature to the four-storey elevation with a pair of console brackets to both side elevations and a substantial rendered chimney-stack with a cornice.

The roof of the three-storey section is hidden behind the parapet wall with a cast-iron railing and a stringcourse below. The painted rendered walls to the front elevation have quoins at either end, and plain render to the side and rear.

‘Established’ … ‘1827’ … stucco lettering on the building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The rendered panel on the second floor between both structures has the word ‘Established,’ which relates to the plaque with the date ‘1827’ above the shopfront.

The square-headed window openings have decorative stuccoed surrounds, moulded sills and a profiled rendered sill course to the second floor of the three-bay section, with replacement aluminium windows throughout.

The painted rendered elaborate shopfront of both sections comprises five pilasters on plinth bases with composite capitals and cornice above. Between the second central pilasters is the recessed panel with the elaborate date plaque above the cornice. There is an arched fixed-pane window with an architrave surround and a scrolled keystone and a pair of polished granite colonnettes with capitals.

The round-headed door opening has a pyramidal keystone architrave surround and a double-leaf timber-panelled door. This arrangement was presumably repeated on the three-storey section but has since been removed and replaced by a modern timber shopfront.

The Athenaeum Building is a classical pedimented stuccoed building dating from the 1830s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

On Cecil Street, the Athenaeum Building is a classical pedimented stuccoed building, built to the designs of John Fogerty, county engineer, as the headquarters of Saint Michael’s Parish Commissioners.

The building designed by John Fogarty in 1833-1834 as the offices of Saint Michael’s Parish Commissioners and served as the town hall for Newtown Pery for 20 years until 1854. It is designed in a restrained manner, without excessive detailing to distract from its pleasant classical proportions.

The name Athenaeum, also spelled Athenæum or Atheneum, is used for many institutions of literary, scientific, or artistic study, and is derived from Athena, the Greek goddess of arts and wisdom.

John Wilson Croker founded the Athenaeum Club in London in 1823, beginning an international movement for the promotion of literary and scientific learning. Croker came from a family with strong connections with Co Limerick, and other founder members of his club included William Blake, Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Sir Walter Scott, Michael Faraday, William M. Turner, and others. The club published a literary and scientific journal, The Athenaeum, which continued until 1921.

The Athenaeum movement spread throughout the world. In England, similarly named clubs were founded in Bristol, Leeds, London, and Manchester. In Ireland, the Cork Athenaeum was built by public subscription in 1853, and later became the Cork Opera House. Dublin had an Athenaeum at 43 Grafton Street in 1856, and there is still an Athenaeum in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.

The founder of the Limerick Athenaeum was William Lane Joynt, who was unique in being elected Mayor of Limerick in 1862 and Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1867. Lane Joynt had been apprenticed as a solicitor to Matthew Barrington. In 1853, as president of the Limerick Literary and Scientific Society, Lane Joynt proposed establishing a Limerick Athenaeum.

One of the first subscribers to the Limerick Athenaeum was Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales in Australia. The building at No 2 Upper Cecil Street was bought from Limerick Corporation in February 1855, and work began on its conversion to a public lecture theatre, school of art and library.

It reopened on 3 December 1855 with classes provided by the School of Ornamental Art. The new Athenaeum Hall, which was built beside the original building, opened to the public on 3 January 1856, with the first Annual General Meeting of the Athenaeum Society. It was described as the ‘finest hall for its special purposes, in Ireland.’ Natural light came from three domes in the high roof, and it had an orchestra gallery and seating for up to 600 people.

The building was both a lecture hall and a theatre, intended for both entertainment and education. The first show = in January 1856, was a multimedia panorama show of the Crimean War. Many of the leading international theatrical figures performed in the Athenaeum in the years that followed, including: Catherine Hayes, the Limerick-born diva, who gave a benefit performance of Handel’s Messiah; General Tom Thumb and PT Barnum; Percy French; and Count John McCormack.

The Athenaeum also hosted lectures and debates, and the speakers included Oscar Wilde as well as Irish political figures William Smith O’Brien, Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Davitt, Isaac Butt, John Redmond, Sir Roger Casement, Patrick Pearse and Maud Gonne; and also John Bright, the English orator, abolitionist and statesman; Christabel Pankhurst, suffragette and daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst; and Michael Cusack, co-founder of the GAA.

Many of Limerick’s leading sporting clubs were founded in the rooms of the Athenaeum, including Limerick Boat Club (1870), Garryowen Football Club (1884) and Limerick Golf Club (1891).

Meanwhile, William Lane Joynt died in Dublin in 1895, and is buried in Saint John’s Churchyard, Limerick. A year later, control of the Athenaeum passed to Limerick Corporation and the Technical Education Committee (later the Vocational Education Committee) in 1896. In 1912, the Technical Education classes and part of the Limerick School of Art moved from the Athenaeum to new premises on O’Connell Avenue.

The lecture hall was then leased out by the Technical Education Committee and the Athenaeum Hall began to double as a theatre and cinema in the early 1900s, reopening as the Athenaeum Permanent Picturedrome.

When Juno and the Paycock an Alfred Hitchcock adaption of Seán O’Casey’s play, was shown in October 1930, it had only one showing when members of the Limerick Confraternity raided the projection box and stole two reels of the film which were later burnt outside the cinema by a mob of at least 20 men in Cecil Street.

With the outbreak of World War II, the tenants surrendered the lease in 1941, and despite sporadic openings over the next few years, the last films were shown in the Athenaeum Cinema in November 1946.

The new Royal Cinema opened on 17 November 1947. The last film was screened at the cinema in 1985. The dereliction of the old Athenaeum continued until 1989, when it was bought by a local businessman who had hopes of opening a new theatre.

Many of the architectural features of the original hall were carefully restored, including the three ceiling domes. Performers included Mary Black, and – after a fire and further renovations – the Cranberries, the Corrs, Boyzone, Dolores Keane, Sharon Shannon, Don Baker, Paul Brady, Davy Spillane, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Julian Lloyd Webber and the Saw Doctors. A sequence of Father Ted was filmed in the theatre in 1995. Despite the relative success of the venue, however, the Theatre Royal closed for the last time in 1998.

The original Athenaeum Building was used as a school from the 1940s to the 1960s and was known in Limerick as the ‘One Day’ Boys School. In 1973, the City VEC moved from O’Connell Street to the Athenaeum, and a refurbishment programme was completed in 2003.

Today, the Athenaeum still stands as the focal point of Cecil Street, and with the theatre it has an important place in this part of Georgian Limerick.

Stucco detailing on the building at 2-3 Little Catherine Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)