Daily prayer in Adent 2025: 2, Monday 1 December 2025, Saint Andrew the Apostle

Saint Andrew the Apostle … a sculpture on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Advent began yesterday, the First Sunday of Advent (30 November 2025), and the celebration of Saint Andrew the Apostle, normally on 30 November, has been transferred to today.

I am at Luton Airport to catch an early morning flight, which means I am going to miss the USPG carol service this evening (1 December) in at Saint John’s Church, Waterloo, with an evening of gospel harmonies, candlelight and festive joy, led by the Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir. The evening is also raising funds for the work of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV programme in Tanzania. I am taking some quiet time in a quiet space in the airport early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Saint Andrew the First-Called … an icon in the chapel in Saint Columba’s House, Woking (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 4: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe in London is the last of Christopher Wren’s city churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

Because yesterday was the First Sunday of Advent, the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle has been transferred from its normal celebration on 30 November to today (1 December).

Saint Andrew the Apostle is often known as the first-called of the disciples. But, before he was called, he was a fisherman, an every-day ordinary-day commercial occupation, working on the Lake of Galilee in partnership with his brother Simon Peter. It is said that when Saint John the Baptist began to preach, Saint Andrew became one of his closest disciples.

When he heard Christ’s call by the sea to follow him, Saint Andrew hesitated for a moment, not because he had any doubts about that call, but because he wanted to bring his brother with him. He left his nets behind and went to Peter and, as Saint John’s Gospel recalls, he told him: ‘We have found the Messiah … [and] he brought Simon to Jesus’ (John 1: 41, 42).

The call in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 4: 18-2) – to Peter and Andrew, to James and John, the sons of Zebedee – comes to us as individuals and in groups. It is not a story of an either/or choice between proclaiming the Gospel to individuals or groups, but a both/and choice.

And this is a two-way call, as Saint Paul reminds us in the Epistle reading today (Romans 10: 12-18): God calls us, and we call to God. Saint Paul’s inclusive language – ‘Lord of all’ … ‘generous to all’ … ‘Everyone who calls’ … ‘all the earth’ – is unambiguous in ruling out all discrimination: ‘For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.’

But that particular form of discrimination is already, inherently, rejected in the Gospel reading. There are two brothers, one with a very Jewish name, Simon from the Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן, meaning ‘listen’ and ‘best’; and one with a very Greek name, Andrew, Ἀνδρέας, meaning ‘manly,’ even ‘brave’ … ‘strong’ … ‘courageous.’

From the very beginning, the call of Christ rejects the most obvious discrimination between Jew and Greek. Standing against discrimination is inherently built into the mission of the Church.

Some years ago, on my way to or from a meeting of USPG trustees, I visited one of the surviving London churches by Sir Christopher Wren in London, Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe on Queen Victoria Street. It is two blocks south of Saint Paul’s Cathedral and close to Blackfriars station, and it is the last of Wren’s city churches.

The church was destroyed by German bombs during the Blitz in World War II, but was rebuilt and rededicated in 1961.

As the bitter weather of winter takes hold, I am reminded of a prayer, appropriate for Advent and this winter weather, I found at Saint Andrew’s and which the church offers for people who have no shelter on the streets:

God of compassion,
your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus,
whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable
and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross:
we hold before you those who are homeless and cold
especially in this bitter weather.
Draw near and comfort them in spirit
and bless those who work to provide them
with shelter, food and friendship.
We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.

Saint Andrew’s Cross (centre) on a hassock in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 1 December 2025, Saint Andrew the Apostle, transferred):

The theme this week (30 to 6 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Kingdom is for All’ (pp 6-7). This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from the Revd Magela, Vicar of Cristo Redentor Parish in Tocantins, Brazil and coordinator of Casa A+, a place of hope and healing for people living with HIV.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 1 December 2025, Saint Andrew the Apostle and World AIDS Day) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for all those living with HIV/AIDS. May they receive compassionate care, access to treatment, and protection from stigma.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him:
call us by your holy word,
and give us grace to follow you without delay
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore, at night … a church has stood on the site for almost 200 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

John Ponsonby, the Irish-born diplomat who put an end to the ‘Rhodes blood libel’ in 1840, and his family links with Corfu

Lord Ponsonby … an Irish diplomat from Co Kilkenny who saved the besieged Jews of Rhodes in the mid-19th century

Patrick Comerford

I was writing last Friday (7 November 2025) about the Jewish community in Rhodes, how they suffered during the Holocaust, and how the Jewish quarter in Rhodes became the setting for the closing scenes in the film Escape to Athena (1979).

I have visited Rhodes half a dozen times or more. But during one visit Rhodes many years ago that was abandoned when a ferry I had booked never sailed, I came across the story of an Irish-born peer and diplomat, who was from a well-known Co Kilkenny family and a bishop’s brother, and how he saved the Jews of Rhodes from a violent outburst of prejudice 185 years ago.

It is a story about the Jewish community in Rhodes, but also has links with the island of Corfu and with many of the Irish Philhellenes, whose contribution to Greek history has been a subject of my research for many years.

In February 1840, the Jews of Rhodes were falsely accused of ritually murdering a Christian boy who had gone missing while walking alone. The incident became known as the ‘Rhodes blood libel’.

After the boy went missing on a walk, the Jews of Rhodes were accused of kidnapping and murdering him. A number of Jewish men were arrested, beaten and tortured and accused of taking Christian children captive for ritual sacrifice.

After the Jewish Quarter in the Old Town of Rhodes was besieged during Passover that year, the British Government decided to intervene on behalf of the Jewish community. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, sent a dispatch on 5 May to the British ambassador in Constantinople, Lord Ponsonby, asking him to communicate the British concerns about events in Rhodes to the Ottoman government ‘officially and in writing’ and to ‘request … an immediate and strict inquiry to be made … especially into the allegation that these atrocities were committed at the instigation of the Christians and the European consuls.’

John Ponsonby (1770-1855) was an Irish-born diplomat from Bessborough, Co Kilkenny. As a young adult, he was visiting revolutionary France in 1791 when he was seized by a mob in Paris but, it is said, his youth and beauty saved him from being hanged as an aristocrate. He returned to Ireland, entered politics as a Whig and a supporter of Catholic Emancipation and an opponent of the Act of Union.

His father was the Speaker of the House of Commons in Grattan’s Parliament and with Henry Grattan was a founder of the Whig Club in Dublin in 1789. John Ponsonby was the MP for Tallow, Co Waterford (1793-1797), and Dungarvan, Co Waterford (1798-1801), in the years immediately before the Act of Union, and in Westminster for Galway City (1801-1802) after the Act of Union.

At the time of the blood libel allegations against the Jews of Rhodes, one of Ponsonby’s brothers, Richard Ponsonby (1772-1853), was Bishop of Derry (1831-1853) and he had previously been Bishop of Killaloe (1828-1831) and Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

His other siblings included Major-General Sir William Ponsonby (1772-1815), who was killed at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the Hon Mary Ponsonby (1776-181), who married the Prime Minister, Charles Grey (1764-1845), 2nd Earl Grey.

John Ponsonby succeeded to his father’s estate and title as Baron Ponsonby when his father died on 5 November 1806. He was based in Corfu from 1818, when he held an appointment in the Ionian Islands from 1818. The Secretary to the Senate of the Ionian Islands at the time was Sir George Ferguson Bowen (1821-1899), from Taughboyne (Churchtown), near Lifford, Co Donegal.

The Treaty of Paris in 1815 had turned the Ionian islands, including Corfu, into the United States of the Ionian Islands under British protection, and the islands were given a new constitution under British rule in 1817. The islanders elected an Assembly of 40 members, who advised the British High Commissioner.

Four other Irish-born politicians and administrators who played key roles in shaping 19th century political life in Corfu: Sir Richard Church (1784-1873) from Cork; Sir Charles Napier (1782-1853) from Celbridge, Co Kildare; George Nugent-Grenville (1789-1850) from Co Westmeath, 2nd Baron Nugent of Carlanstown; and Sir John Young (1807-1876) from Bailieborough, Co Cavan, later Lord Lisgar.

British rule continued until the islands were united with Greece in 1862, and the British legacy in Corfu has been described as afternoon tea and cricket. But Ponsonby’s papers provide little evidence of his activities there or indeed of any aspect of his career before the 1820s.

The Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George, Corfu … the centre of British rule in Corfu until 1862 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Back in London, King George IV was jealous of Ponsonby and the attention he was receiving from the king’s mistress, Lady Coyngham. And so, Ponsonby was sent abroad once again, holding diplomatic posts in Argentina (1826-1828), Brazil (1828-1829), Belgium (1830-1831) and Naples (1832).

Ponsonby was sent to Constantinople as the British ambassador in 1832, and a year before the crisis in Rhodes he was given the peerage title of Viscount Ponsonby of Imokilly, Co Cork, on 20 April 1839.

Ponsonby’s immediate response to Palmerston’s instructions on the ‘Rhodes blood libel’ created a consensus within the European diplomatic corps in Constantinople that the persecution of the Jews of Rhodes had to cease. Emboldened, Ponsonby, who was by far the most powerful diplomat in Constantinople, intervened with the Ottoman court on behalf of the Jews of Rhodes.

An Ottoman inquiry cleared the Jewish population of all the accusations. The Turkish governor of Rhodes, Yusuf Pasha, was dismissed for not having upheld the law, and Ponsonby praised the investigation as one during which the ‘affair of Rhodes was examined with fairness’. He called the verdict ‘a signal proof of the justice and humanity with which the Sublime Porte acts.’

Ponsonby had married Lady Frances Villiers, seventh daughter of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, in 1803. They had no children and she died in London on 14 April 1866. John Ponsonby died in Brighton on 21 February 1855, and he is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

The Seahorse Fountain in the Square of the Jewish Martyrs in the walled city of Rhodes (Photograph: Square, Nadezhda Bogatyryova/Wikimapia)

But there was another family connection with the Greek islands and the Irish Philhellenes. John Ponsonby was a near contemporary and a second cousin of Major-General Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby (1783-1837) who was also involved in British rule in Corfu.

Sir Frederick Ponsonby was a son of Frederick Ponsonby (1758-1844), 3rd Earl of Bessborough, and a brother of the famed or notorious Lady Caroline Lamb. Ponsonby was severely wounded at the Battle of Waterloo. Ponsonby was appointed inspecting field officer in the Ionian Islands on 20 January 1824, and he was promoted major-general on 27 May 1825, commanding the British troops in the Ionian Islands. He left Corfu at the end of 1826 when he was appointed Governor of Malta.

During his time in the Ionian Islands, his son, the future Major-General Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby (1825-1895) was born in Corfu on 10 December 1825 and was baptised there. He later became Queen Victoria’s Private Secretary.

As for Bessborough House, near Piltown, Co Kilkenny, the home of the Ponsonby family for generations and that gave them their family title, it became a seminary or theological college for the Oblate fathers in the 1940s. They sold it to the Department of Agriculture in 1971, and it since 1980 it has been Kildalton Agricultural College.

The British legacy is Corfu is said to be afternoon tea and cricket (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A discreet plaque in London remembers David Ricardo, an early Jewish-born MP and ‘Britain's greatest economist’

Drayton House, home of the Department of Economics at UCL, which owes its origins to the politician and economist David Ricardo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Friends’ House and Drayton House form one impressive block at the corner of Euston Road and Gordon Street, London, opposite Euston Station. The building includes Friends’ House, the central offices and library of the Quakers in Britain, with a peaceful garden, and Drayton House, which houses the Department of Economics of University College London (UCL).

The imposing block is familiar to the many thousands of people who walk out from Euston Station onto Euston Road, and when I am meeting people in London, I often arrange to meet them at the café or in the secluded gardens there.

Friends’ House and Drayton House are close to Bloomsbury, Saint Pancras and King’s Cross. The block was built in a neo-Georgian style 100 years ago, in 1924-1928, to the design of the architect Hubert Lidbetter.

The plaque to David Ricardo on the Gordon Street frontage of Drayon House was unveiled in 2005 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

However, few commuters and rail users, I imagine, notice the small discreet plaque at the Gordon Street end commemorating David Ricardo (1772-1823), who was only the second person of Jewish birth to have been elected an MP, and who has been described as ‘Britain's greatest economist’.

The plaque to David Ricardo on the Gordon Street frontage of Drayon House was unveiled 20 years ago, on 21 August 2005. The Chair of Political Economy at UCL was created in 1828 with the assistance of funds raised to commemorate Ricardo, establishing the first Department of Economics in England.

The plaque is so discreet that it is not even mentioned in Jewish London, the comprehensive guidebook produced by Rachel Kolsky and Roslyn Rawson.

David Ricardo, ‘Britain's greatest economist’ and Ireland’s first Jewish-born MP (Source: Thomas Phillips/Wikpedia/Common Licence)

David Ricardo became the first Jewish-born MP in Ireland when he became the MP for Portarlington on 20 February 1819. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was not elected until 1837, and although he had been born Jewish, he had been baptised at the age of 12 in 1817. Lord George Gordon had converted to Judaism in 1787, seven years after he lost his seat in Parliament.

Other MPs may have had Jewish parents, but only two Jewish-born MPs were elected before Disraeli: Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes (1755-1831), who converted to Christianity in 1802, the year he was elected, and the political economist David Ricardo, who became MP for Portarlington on 20 February 1819.

David Ricardo was born in London on 18 April 1772, the third of 17 children of a Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese descent who had recently moved to London from Amsterdam. The Ricardo family removed from Livorno in Tuscany to Amsterdam in the late 17th or early 18th century, and family members were prominent in the Jewish community in Amsterdam.

His father, Abraham Ricardo, wa a successful stockbroker on the Amsterdam Bourse and was naturalised in London in 1771. In 1773, he was appointed to one of the 12 brokerships reserved for Jews in the City of London. David Ricardo’s mother, Abigail Delvalle, was the daughter of a tobacco merchant.

David had a traditional Jewish upbringing. His family may have thought he had the potential to become a rabbi, and it is said he attended the Talmud Torah in Amsterdam in 1783-1785. But he returned to London and began working with his father at the age of 14 in 1786.

At the age of 21, he eloped with Priscilla Anne Wilkinson, a Quaker – a detail that becomes interesting in the coincidence that Friends’s House and Drayton House form one block. Their marriage led to his estrangement from his family, and the Ricardo family ‘went into mourning for him as if he was dead.’ His father disowned him and his mother never spoke to him again, although he was left £100 in his father’s will ‘in token of forgiveness.’

Forced to find his own independence, Ricardo went into business on his own with the support of Lubbocks and Forster, a banking house. He was an innovative economic thinker and was also closely involved in the city’s financial history. His work initiated the now dominant tradition of economic analysis rooted in systematic theoretical modelling. To this day, his insights into the principles of trade and public finance remain pertinent.

As a trustee of the early modern Stock Exchange, he was a member of the Committee of Proprietors that decided in 1801 to reconstitute it on a private subscription basis and subsequently helped oversee the execution of the plan. He later played a leading role in syndicates contracting loans that financed the Napoleonic wars. He made the bulk of his fortune speculating on the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, when he reportedly ‘netted upwards of a million sterling’ – an impressive sum at the time.

Ricardo retired immediately, bought Gatcombe Park, an estate in Gloucestershire now owned by Princess Anne, and he was appointed the High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1818-1819.

He declined an invitation In November 1816 to contest a by-election in Worcester. In December 1817, Ricardo’s agent Edward Wakefield negotiated with Lord Portarlington’s agent to buy his interest in the ‘rotten borough’ of Portarlington in Queen’s County (now Co Laois), ‘at the market price of the day’, as part of a loan agreement for the debt-laden Irish peer.

Portarlington was a ‘rotten borough’ with just a handful of electors and was controlled by the Dawson family of Emo Court. But the deal fell through because ‘Lord Portarlington found there was nothing to be got by returning an opposition man.’

Ricardo then considered several borough seats, including Wootton Bassett and Fowey. However, in August 1818, he finally secured Lord Portarlington’s borough for £4,000 as part of the terms of a loan of £25,000.

Ricardo took his seat as an Irish MP on 20 February 1819, and he sat in the House of Commons as a Whig until his death five years later. Although Portarlington was a ‘rotten borough’ and he never visited his constituents, Ricardo was a supporter of parliamentary reform and religious toleration and he voted for Catholic relief on 3 May 1819.

JL Mallet noted that Ricardo, notwithstanding his slender footing in the House, his Jewish name and his shrill voice, obtained great attention and was cheered in the House of Commons throughout his first speech. A few days later, the Duke of Wellington met Ricardo at a large party at Lady Lansdowne’s and congratulated him on his speech.

Ricardo was an earnest reformer in Parliament, seeking an inquiry into the Peterloo massacre, and supporting free trade, criminal law reform and the abolition of the death penalty.

Ricardo died on 11 September 1823 from an infection of the middle ear that spread into the brain and induced septicaemia. He was 51. He was buried in Saint Nicholas churchyard in Hardenhuish, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Ricardo’s writings fascinated a number of early socialists in the 1820s, who thought his value theory had radical implications. Later, his eldest son, Osman Ricardo (1795-1881), was MP for Worcester (1847-1865); another son, David Ricardo (1803-1864), was MP for Stroud (1832-1833).

During Ricardo’s life, London had no university and Jews were unable to graduate at either of the existing universities in England – Oxford and Cambridge – because of religious restrictions. When UCL was founded in 1826, three years after Ricardo’s death, it was with a commitment to provide opportunities for university education to people of all religious beliefs.

After Ricardo’s death, his friends in the influential Political Economy Club – including Robert Malthus and John Stewart Mill – raised funds as a ‘tribute to his genius’, to perpetuate his memory through the delivery of lectures on the subject of political economy. When the university appointed Ricardo’s follower, John Ramsay McCulloch, to its first chair in Political Economy these funds were transferred to UCL to support teaching the subject.

The plaque at Drayton House honouring David Ricardo and his association with the foundation of the Department of Economics at UCL, was unveiled by Thomas Sargent, President of the Econometric Society, during the 2005 World Congress of the Econometric Society.

The plaque to David Ricardo on the Gordon Street frontage of Drayon House was unveiled in 2005 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There is no evidence in Ricardo’s life of any particular interest in Jewish religious or communal affairs. He maintained cordial relations with the younger members of his family – some of whom seceded from Judaism – and during a visit to Amsterdam in 1822 he sought out some of his Dutch family members, including his sister’s son, the poet Isaac da Costa (1798-1860).

In 1823, he wrote, ‘It appears to me a disgrace to the age we live in, that many of the inhabitants of this country are still suffering under disabilities, imposed on them in less enlightened times. The Jews have most reason to complain, for they are frequently reproached with following callings which are the natural effects of the political degradation in which they are kept. I cannot help thinking that the time is approaching when these ill-founded prejudices against men on account of their religious opinions will disappear, and I should be happy if I could be an humble instrument in accelerating their fall.’

McCulloch wrote in 1846 that young Ricardo abandoned the Jewish religion of his upbringing. But Joseph Jacobs and JH Hollander in the Jewish Encyclopaedia point out there is no evidence of any formal apostasy, and that ‘it is more reasonable to hold that virtual alienation resulted from marriage outside of the Jewish faith and that the severance of family ties followed.’

The late Asher Benson, in his Jewish Dublin (Dublin: A&A Farmar, 2007), says, ‘Although there is no evidence that he converted to Christianity, he must have sworn allegiance to that faith in order to be admitted to Parliament.’

The law excluding any member of the Jewish religion from Parliament unless he swore an oath of abjuration remained in place until the 1850s.

No other Jewish-born MP was elected to represent an Irish constituency until 1892, when Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834-1913), the Hamburg-born co-founder of Harland and Wolff, was elected for East Belfast. But Wolff too had converted to Christianity, and was a member of the Church of Ireland and of the Orange Order.

The first Jewish member of the new Irish Parliament after independence was Ellen Odette Cuffe (1857-1933), Countess of Desart, who was appointed to the Free State Senate by WT Cosgrave in 1922. She was born Ellen Odette Bischoffsheim, and she was a leading philanthropist in Co Kilkenny, where she lived at Cuffesgrange. She has been called ‘the most important Jewish woman in Irish history.’

The first Jewish TD, Robert Briscoe (1894-1969), was elected to the Dáil in 1927, over a century after Ricardo took his seat, and he remained a Fianna Fail TD until 1961. He also served two terms as Lord Mayor of Dublin.

May his memory be a blessing, זיכרונו לברכה

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום

Emo Court in Co Laois, the home of the Earls of Portarlington when they sold the ‘rotten borough’ of Portarlington to David Ricardo in 1819 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore, recalls Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, a colonial governor whose parents lived in Wexford

Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore, commemorates Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), whose parents lived in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Our two visits to Singapore over the past two months have been short but sweet: six hours last month and less than 36 hours last week. But during those two short yet intensive visits, it was interesting to see the extent to which Singapore was shaped in the 19th century and early 20th century by some influential Irish figures, including the Governor Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), who had family roots in Co Wexford and Co Kildare, and the architects George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), who was born in Drogheda, and Denis Santry (1879-1960), who was born in Cork.

General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh was the last Governor of the Straits Settlements appointed from India, and he governed from Singapore from 1859 to 1867.

Cavenagh was born in Hythe, Kent, where his father was stationed, on 8 October 1820. He was the third son of James Gordon Cavenagh (1766-1844), an Irish army surgeon, and Ann (née Coates) Cavenagh (1788-1846).

The Cavenagh family returned to Wexford in 1837 and lived at Castle House. Some of the Cavenagh children are said to have attended the Ferns Diocesan School, perhaps the parish school in Saint Patrick’s Square at the south end of High Street, Wexford.

The Cavenagh family lived at Castle House, off Trinity Street and Parnell Street, Wexford (Photograph: Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland)

James Cavenagh (1702-1769) of Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, was a Surveyor of Excise and was said to be descended from the Kavanagh family of Borris House, Co Carlow.

His son, Matthew Cavenagh (1740-1819), ran away from Co Wexford with Catherine Hyde Orfeur (1748-1814), daughter of Captain John Orfeur late of Drillingstown, Co Wexford, and they were married in Innishannon, Co Cork. They moved to Wexford in the 1770s and lived in Back Street, then regarded as a fashionable part of the town.

High Street was also known as Upper Back Street; Abbey Street was once called Lower Back Street; while the portion of Back Street that connects High Street and Rowe Street with John’s Gate Street and Cornmarket is now named Mallin Street and is the location of the new Wexford Town Library.

Wexford Town Library on Mallin Street, once known as Back Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew Cavenagh was the Surveyor of Excise in Wexford. Matthew Cavenagh, his son James Gordon Cavenagh, and other members of the Cavenagh family are buried in a family vault in the ruins of Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford.

Matthew Cavenagh’s oldest son, James Gordon Cavenagh (1766-1844), became a surgeon and joined the British army. He lived at the barracks in Hythe, near Folkestone, Kent. He married Ann Coates (1788-1846) in New Romney, Kent, on 27 March 1815. A few months later, he was a late arrival at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

James Gordon Cavenagh returned to Wexford around 1837, and lived at Castle House, off Trinity Street and Parnell Street. James died in Wexford on 11 September 1844, Ann died in Wexford in 1846; they are both buried in the family vault at Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford.

General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh was the Governor of the Straits Settlements in Singapore from 1859 to 1867

The future General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh Cavenagh trained at Addiscombe Military Seminary, the military academy of the British East India Company. He passed his examination in 1837, and he joined the 32nd Regiment Native Infantry in early 1838.

After further military training at Fort William College, Calcutta, in 1840, he was appointed to the 41st Regiment Native Infantry. He married Elizabeth Marshall Moriarty at Dinapore, India, on 7 September 1842, and they were the parents of two sons.

He was so badly wounded in the Battle of Maharajpore in December 1843 that his leg was severed just above the ankle. He was wounded again in the left arm in January 1846 during the first Anglo-Sikh war. After this he was appointed as Superintendent of the Mysore Princes and of the ex-Ameers of Sindh.

Cavenagh travelled to Britain and France in 1850 in political charge of the Nepalese Embassy under Jung Bahadur Rana. As Town and Fort Major of Calcutta, he was responsible for the safety of Fort William during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

Canning offered him the post of Governor of the Straits Settlements, and he took up the post on 8 August 1859. Under a royal charter in 1826, Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Dindings had been combined to form the Straits Settlements.

As Governor of the Straits Settlements, Cavenagh was answerable to the Governor-General of India in Calcutta. One of his tasks was to prepare a special report on the resources of the State of Sarawak, administered as a separated independent state by the Rajah of Sarawak, Sir James Brooke.

When control passed to the Colonial Office in London on 1 April 1867, the Straits Settlements became a crown colony. Cavenagh was the last Governor to report to the Governor-General in Calcutta.

After his time in Singapore ended on 16 March 1867, Cavenagh continued as a general officer in the Bengal Staff Corps, becoming a lieutenant general in 1874 and a general in 1877. In retirement, Cavenagh lived in Long Ditton, Surrey. He was knighted in 1881, and died on 3 July 1891.

Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford … generations of the Cavenagh family are buried beside the church ruins (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cavenagh gives his name to Cavenagh Road in the Orchard Road area and Cavenagh Bridge in Singapore.

Cavenagh Bridge, spanning the lower reaches of the Singapore River in the Downtown Core, is the only suspension bridge and one of the oldest bridges in Singapore. It was opened in 1869 to commemorate Singapore’s new status in the crown colony of the Straits Settlements in 1867. It is the oldest bridge in Singapore that exists in its original form.

The bridge was originally known as the Edinburgh Bridge to commemorate a visit to Singapore by Queen Victoria’s second son, the Duke of Edinburgh. Its name was changed to Cavenagh Bridge in honour of Major General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, and the coat-of-arms of the Cavenagh family can still be seen on the signage at both ends of the bridge.

The Cavenagh plaque and Cavenagh coat-of-arms on Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Cavenagh Bridge linked the Civic District on the north bank to the Commercial District on the south bank of the Singapore River. Before Cavenagh Bridge was built, people could only move between the two districts by a detour over Elgin Bridge or by paying for a sampan boat crossing of the river.

Cavenagh Bridge has elaborate suspension struts compared to most other suspension bridges, and is the third bridge to be built in Singapore. Numerous steel rivets were used in its construction, which employed steel casting methods commonly used at the era.

The bridge was designed by John Turnbull Thomson of the colonial Public Works Department and built by P&W Maclellan, Glasgow Engineers. It was built and tested in Glasgow to withstand a load four times its own weight. It was then shipped to Singapore in parts and reassembled in 1869 by convict labour before opening to traffic a year later.

Rickshaws and ox carts used Cavenagh Bridge to cross Singapore River. Later the bridge became overloaded due to the flourishing trade on the Singapore River in the late 1880s.

Cavenagh Bridge is now a pedestrian bridge and a national monument (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

When Cavenagh Bridge became unable to cope with the increasing traffic and its low draught was insufficient for the passage of boats at high tide, the government decided to build the Anderson Bridge in 1910 to replace Cavenagh Bridge.

Cavenagh Bridge was eventually spared from demolition and was converted into a pedestrian bridge, with the road traffic diverted to the Anderson Bridge. A police notice, preserved to this day, was placed at both ends of the bridge restricting the passage of vehicles that weighed beyond 3 cwt (152 kg or 336 lb), including cattle and horses.

Cavenagh Bridge is now a pedestrian bridge, with lighting added in 1990 to accentuate its architectural features at nightfall. It provides the most convenient pedestrian link between the cultural district at the north bank and the commercial district to the south of the Singapore River, and complements the renovated Fullerton Hotel beside the bridge. The bridge was designated a national monument in 2019.

Lighting was added to Cavenagh Bridge in 1990 to accentuate its architectural features at nightfall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Rugby, the home of the game, is celebrating 200 years since Webb Ellis broke the rules

Graham Ibbeson’s statue of William Webb Ellis outside Rugby School (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

It is frequently said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. The saying has long been attributed to the victor at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, who was born in Dublin and spent three years at Eton after his early schooldays in Trim, Dublin and Chelsea.

However, this oral tradition is probably apocryphal. The earliest version of it said to date from 1856, when Wellington revisited Eton and is said to have declared: ‘It is here that the battle of Waterloo was won!’

There are other versions of the aphorism. Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), in his essay ‘An Eton Boy’ in the Fortnightly Review in 1881, wrote of ‘how the battle of Waterloo was won in the playing-fields of Eton. Alas! disasters have been prepared in those playing-fields as well as victories; disasters due to inadequate mental training – to want of application, knowledge, intelligence, lucidity.’

George Orwell said more pungent in The Lion and the Unicorn (1941): ‘Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.’

The playing fields of Rugby … more important than the ‘playing fields of Eton’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

But there are other public schools with different memories associated with their playing fields. Thanks to events on the playing fields of Rugby 200 years ago, it could be said with pride that this year Ireland has won the Triple Crown, the Grand Slam and the Championship title.

This year marks the bicentenary of the game of Rugby. It is 200 years since William Webb Ellis took the ball in his arms and ran with it on the Close at Rugby School. Before 1823, football was played much like Australian rules football is played today. It was ‘with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time’ that William Webb Ellis ‘first took the ball in his arms and ran with it.’

Throughout 2023, Rugby School and the rugby world are celebrating this anniversary. We will be welcoming teams from a range of backgrounds and abilities to play on The Close, as well as hosting dinners, evenings and the annual ‘Festival On The Close,’ which this year will be named ‘With a Fine Disregard’ in honour of Webb Ellis.

Regent Place … the site of ancient settlements and a long-lost castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

As I was growing up, any mention of the town of Rugby brought to mind not only the game of Rugby, the school, and William Webb Ellis, but also the cement works, the railway junction, Tom Brown’s schooldays, Matthew Arnold and Archbishop Frederick Temple.

These days, I pass through Rugby frequently on the train. But I decided to visit the town yesterday, thinking any Irish rugby fan still in a celebratory mood from the result two weeks ago should visit the home of rugby this year.

Rugby is a market town in east Warwickshire, with a population of almost 80,000, and the second-largest town in Warwickshire. It is 134 km (83 miles) north of London, 48 km (30 miles) south-east of Birmingham, and close to Coventry, Northampton and Leicester.

There were Early Iron Age settlements in the Rugby area. They were followed by the Dobunni and the Corieltauvi, Celtic tribes. During the Roman period, Tripontium was established on Watling Street, about 5.5 km away, and the small settlement was taken over by the Anglo-Saxons ca 560.

Rugby is named in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Rocheberie. In the 12th century, Rugby had a castle on the site of Regent Place today, although this may have been little more than a fortified manor house. By the 13th century the name was commonly spelt as Rokeby or Rookby. Rugby became a parish in its own right in 1221 and a market town with a charter in 1255.

Rugby School had moved to its present location by 1750 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Rugby School was founded in 1567 with a bequest from Lawrence Sheriff, who made his fortune in London as the grocer to Queen Elizabeth I. Sheriff intended Rugby School to be a free grammar school for local boys, but it gradually became a mostly fee-paying private school, and most of its pupils came from outside Rugby.

Rugby School moved from its original site north of Saint Andrew’s Church, to its present location south of the town centre by 1750. But Rugby remained a small town until the mid-19th century. A major railway junction was established in 1840 and spurred the development of industry and the rapid growth of population.

Rugby was transformed into a railway town, large-scale cement production began in the town in 1862, heavy engineering industries began to set up in Rugby in 1890s and 1900s, attracted by its central location and good transport links.

The invention of Rugby is credited to William Webb Ellis and his legendary rule breaking in 1823, when he picked up the ball and ran with it during a match. Of course, there is little evidence to support this story, but the school is credited with codifying and popularising the sport and in 1845 three Rugby School pupils produced the first written rules of the ‘Rugby style of game.’

Rugby School is also the setting of Thomas Hughes’s semi-autobiographical Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), and the town is the setting for Charles Dickens’s story Mugby Junction.

Rugby School is said to have been one of the inspirations behind the modern revival of the Olympic Games. Pierre de Coubertin, visited Rugby School several times in the late 19th century, and named the school as one of his major inspirations behind his decision to revive the Olympic Games.

Rugby also claims to be the birthplace of the jet engine. Frank Whittle built and tested the world's first prototype jet engine at the British Thomson-Houston (BTH) works in Rugby in 1937. Holography was invented in Rugby in 1947 by the Hungarian-born inventor Dennis Gabor, who later received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971.

The Clock Tower in Market Place stands on the site of an ancient cross and traditionally marks the centre of Rugby (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The town centre in Rugby is mostly Victorian and early 20th century, although some older buildings survive. The main shopping area has traditionally been in the streets around the Clock Tower, including High Street and Sheep Street, which were pedestrianised in the 1980s.

The Clock Tower was built in Market Place in 1887 on the site of an ancient cross and traditionally marks the centre of Rugby.

The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described Rugby as ‘Butterfieldtown’ because of the number of buildings in the town designed by William Butterfield in the 19th century, including much of Rugby School and the rebuilding of Saint Andrew’s Church.

The buildings of Rugby School mostly date from the 18th and 19th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The buildings of Rugby School mostly date from the 18th and 19th centuries, with some early 20th century additions.

The oldest school buildings are the Old Quad Buildings and the School House, the oldest parts of which date from 1748, but were mostly built between 1809 and 1813 by Henry Hakewill. Most of the present landmark buildings date from the Victorian era and were designed by William Butterfield, a disciple of AWN Pugin. They include Butterfield’s New Quad buildings, dating from 1867 to 1885, and the chapel, dating from 1872.

Graham Ibbeson’s statue of William Webb Ellis outside Rugby School, at the junction of Lawrence Sheriff Street, Dunchurch Road and Warwick Street, is one of the most visited sites in the town. The statue was funded by world-wide subscription and unveiled in 1997.

The school buildings behind the statue were designed by Butterfield, and have patterns of Staffordshire blue-black bricks on a background of yellow and red brick. The main School Chapel, also designed by Butterfield, has the grave of Thomas Arnold and memorials to many Old Rugbeians, including Rupert Brooke, Lewis Carroll and Matthew Arnold. The grey stone Memorial Chapel designed by Sir Charles Nicholson is a later addition from 1922 and honours Old Rugbeians who died in two World Wars and in Korea, Cyprus and Egypt.

The Temple Speech Room commemorates Archbishop Frederick Temple (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

But what ever happened to the boy when is said to have invented the game of Rugby?

When he left Rugby in 1826, the Revd William Webb Ellis (1806-1872), went to Brasenose College, Oxford. He played cricket for his college, and for Oxford against Cambridge in 1827. He graduated BA in 1829 and MA in 1831, and after ordination became chaplain of Saint George’s Chapel, Albemarle Street, London, and then the Rector of Saint Clement Danes in the Strand. He became the Rector of Magdalen Laver in Essex in 1855. When he died in the south of France in 1872, he was buried at Menton.

The plaza in front of the school chapels and surrounding the Webb Ellis statue is still bedecked with the flags of the Six Nations following this year’s championship. The Webb Ellis Cup is presented to the winners of the Rugby World Cup every four years. France is hosting the Rugby World Cup later this year. Here’s hoping for a memorable Irish performance.

The game goes on (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Watching football in the pub with princes and dukes

The Duke of Wellington on Wolverton Road, Stony Stratford … once known as the Duke of Edinburgh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

There is a story about the Duke of Edinburgh that is probably apocryphal but is still worth retelling.

It is said that one Saturday afternoon, during a football match, he personally rang one of the senior farm staff members at Balmoral. The phone was answered by the man’s son, who said his father was watching football on the television, and asked could whether he could take a message.

‘No, tell him I want to talk to him,’ Prince Philip insisted.

‘OK,’ the youth came back, ‘but who’s calling him?’

‘The Duke of Edinburgh,’ the duke said clearly.

Without dropping the ’phone, the boy shouted out, ‘Hey, Dad! Some bloke from the pub wants to talk to you. Are you in?’

There are pubs throughout England and Scotland known as the Duke of Edinburgh, and when Prince Philip died earlier last year many were – paradoxically – disappointed that they could not close as marks of respect, because they were already closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But, of course, few if any of the Dukes of Edinburgh up and down the land were not named after Prince Philip. Most of these pubs, it seems, were named after Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred (1844-1900), who was given the titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent by his mother in 1866.

Prince Alfred later became the sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1893-1900), and the title ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ lost its popularity as a name for pubs in England as tensions with Germany rose in the years before World War I.

The coat of arms of the Duke of Wellington on the pub sign (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

In the 1860s, the Duke of Edinburgh was the name of a pub on the corner of Wolverton Road and King Street in Stony Stratford. The popularity of the pub grew with the development of the tram line between Stony Stratford and Wolverton, but the name lost its lustre at the same time.

For a time it was known as the Dog and Gun, but a succession of proprietors eventually settled on the name of the Duke of Wellington for their premises.

Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), 1st Duke of Wellington, was born in Merrion Square, Dublin, and went to school at Drogheda Grammar School. He was one of the many Irish-born British Prime Ministers, but he is popularly remembered and celebrated as the victor at the Battle of Waterloo. He had been a proxy sponsor at the baptism of that earlier Duke of Edinburgh, and died in 1852, long before the Duke of Edinburgh in Stony Stratford changed its name.

In recent weeks, the Duke of Wellington on Wolverton Road has changed management, and the scaffolding has come down from around the building, revealing once again the sign displaying the coat of arms of the Dukes of Wellington. These arms quarters the arms of the Wellesley and Cowley families, with an additional representation of the crosses of Saint George, Saint Andrew and Saint Patrick as ‘the union badge of the United Kingdom.’

The Colley or Cowley family, the direct male line of ancestors of the Dukes, came to Ireland in the late 16th century. When Richard Colley’s distant cousin Garret Wesley died and he inherited the Dangan and Mornington estates in Co Meath, Richard Colley changed his name to Wellesley.

The Duke of Wellington is the only pub in Stony Stratford that I know to have a name with Irish associations. The new-look pub has become a popular local venue in recent weeks for World Cup fixtures. For England supporters, it matters little whether the Duke of Edinburgh was Scots or German or the Duke of Wellington was Irish or English. Hopefully, there are more pressing issues, such as human rights in Qatar, including the rights of women, gay people and migrant workers, the lack of democracy, and the despotic and explotative regime, and the arrogant, grubby attitude of senior officials in FIFA.

The Duke of Wellington at night … a popular venue for watching live sport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Searching for lost architectural and religious heritage in the lanes of Wexford

Saint Mary’s Church dates back to 1365 and was one of the finest mediaeval churches in Wexford

Patrick Comerford

I lived in Wexford half a century ago, and ever since I have been fascinated by the town’s history and heritage, and by its church history.

However, the recent destruction Westgate House has raised about the loss in the near future of further key components of Wexford’s architectural heritage.

Ruins are a reminder
of a mediaeval parish

Walking along South Main Street during a recent visit to Wexford, I turned up steep, narrow Mann’s Lane, opposite Oyster Lane, and found myself halfway along Mary’s Lane. Here the lane curves in a semi-circle around the walls and ruins of mediaeval Saint Mary’s Church, one of the mediaeval churches within the walls of Wexford Town.

Mary’s Lane runs parallel to South Main Street, stretching from Peter Street to Bride Street, with the entrance to the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church at the southern end of the lane, close to the entrance at Bride Street.

The mediaeval Saint Mary’s parish was tine, covering a mere 4.5 ha (11 acres). The parish was bounded by Saint Patrick’s to the north, Saint Peter’s and Saint Bridget’s to the west, Saint Doologe’s to the south, and Wexford Harbour to the east. Its southern boundary was at Stonebridge. South Main Street, from Peter Street to Stonebridge runs through the centre of the former parish.

The first reference to Saint Mary’s Church is in 1365. It was said to have been one of the finest mediaeval churches in Wexford. It resembled neighbouring Saint Patrick’s Church in design, and though smaller was more beautiful in detail. Like Saint Patrick’s and Selskar Church, Saint Mary’s had a double nave. The capitals of the pillars, the mouldings of the arches, and the tracery of the widows were more ornamental than either Selskar or Saint Patrick’s.

The curve on Mary’s Lane encircling Saint Mary’s churchyard and the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church

***

Dr Nicholas French (1604-1678), Roman Catholic Bishop of Ferns (1645-1678), was the last Parish Priest of Saint Mary’s from 1638. Saint Mary’s was plundered and pillaged, profaned and destroyed by Cromwellian troops in 1649. French was not living in his house in Peter Street at the time, but was ill in New Ross. Finally, he was driven into exile in 1651.

In a letter, French described the attack on the priests, people and church of Saint Mary’s: ‘There before God’s Altar fell many sacred victims, holy priests of the Lord, others who were seized outside the precincts of the Church were scourged with whips; others hanged and others put to death by various cruel tortures.’

It is said the bell from Saint Mary’s was given to the Church of Ireland parish church in Castlebridge.

A century later, the artist Gabriel Beranger painted the interior of Saint Mary’s Church in 1779-1780. The ruined walls of Saint Mary’s continued to stand against wind and weather until 4 June 1822 when they were struck by a thunderbolt in a storm that raged over the town.

Today all that stands of Saint Mary’s is a single wall, a lonely sentinel guarding faithfully the tragic memories of the past. The locked gates of and churchyard stand at the top of a flight of stone steps.

The steps and locked gates leading into the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church

A link with 1798 and
the Battle of Waterloo

Spawell Road was an early and elegant development of Georgian and Victorian homes to the west of Wexford’s town centre. But today the main house of the former Loreto Convent is a sorry sight on Spawell Road, surrounded by steel fencing and security notices.

This house, once known as Richmond House has historical associations with both the 1798 Rising and the Battle of Waterloo, and with the famous Lennox sisters.

The former Richmond House, which gives its name to later housing developments in the Spawell Road area, was first built in 1792 by Charles Lennox (1764-1819), who succeeded as the fourth Duke of Richmond in 1806.

He was a nephew of the Lennox sisters, four 18th century aristocrats who inspired Stella Tillyard’s book and the six-part BBC mini-series Aristocrats: Lady Caroline Fox (1723-1774), 1st Baroness Holland, Lady Emily FitzGerald (1731-1814), Duchess of Leinster, Lady Louisa Conolly (1743-1821) of Castletown House, Co Kildare, and Lady Sarah Napier (1745-1826) of Celbridge House, Co Kildare.

This means the future duke who built Richmond House six years before the 1798 Rising, was a first cousin of both Lord Edward FitzGerald, one of the leading figures in the United Irishmen, and General Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853), famous as the captor of Sindh but also Governor of Kephalonia – ‘Captain Corelli’s’ island – and a leading Philhellene during the Greek War of Independence in the mid-19th century.

Richmond House, the main house of the former Loreto Convent in Wexford, was first built by the Duke of Richmond in 1792

***

Charles Lennox became the 4th Duke of Richmond in 1806 after the death of his uncle, Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond. Later, he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1807 to 1813.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Richmond was in command of a force that was protecting Brussels in case Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. On the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras, his wife – the former Lady Charlotte Gordon – held a ball for his fellow officers. The glittering celebration became famous as the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball and is referred to by William Makepeace Thackeray in Vanity Fair and by Lord Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

Richmond became Governor General of Canada in 1818. But his time there was cut short unexpectedly. He was on a tour of Canada in 1819 when he was bitten on the hand by a fox. He continued on the tour, but rabies and he died 28 August 1819. He was buried at Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Quebec.

In the Victorian era, Richmond House was the home of William White (1803-1865) and later of Alderman John Greene JP (1803-1890), seven times Mayor of Wexford and founder of the Wexford Independent. The Loreto nuns moved into Richmond House in 1886, and their school grew up around the house.

Until recently, the original house was well maintained. But the future of Richmond House on Spawell Road now looks uncertain.

Wellington Cottage on Spawell Road … its name offers another connection with the Battle of Waterloo

Jew’s Bridge and
the oldest bridge

As I wondered about the architectural heritage of Wexford, I also wondered about whether the town had a Jewish heritage too. Stonebridge once marked the mediaeval boundary of Saint Mary’s and Saint Doologe’s. Although it no longer survives, it was once the oldest bridge in the town and was known as Jew’s Bridge in 1764.

I wondered whether it was known as Jew’s Bridge because a Jewish merchant of possible Sephardic descent, had moved to Wexford in the 1750 or 1760s, and had lived at this end of South Main Street, close to the Quays and Stonebridge Castle.

The original bridge at Stonebridge at Stonebridge was built over the Bishopswater River, and probably marked the northern gate of the earliest Norse or Viking settlement at Wexford. A fading plaque on the shopfront of a former picture framing business recalls that the Stonebridge dated back to the Norse period. Norse and mediaeval fishing fleets berthed in the estuary below the bridge. It is recorded that in 1172, King Henry II paid £45 for Wexford fish.

Later, the bridge was built in stone, and became known as Stonebridge and the Bridge of Wexford.

The first recorded murder or manslaughter in Wexford town took place at Stonebridge in mid-afternoon 25 February 1560. A quarrel broke out between Thomas Walsh a shoemaker, and Geoffrey Brian, a mariner. The insults led to blows being exchanged, before Brian stabbed Walsh below the chest.

Stonebridge Castle was also known as Stafford’s Castle, and was owned by James Stafford, the man blamed in tradition for betraying Wexford to Cromwell.

At one time, Stonebridge was known as Wexford Bridge. But, for some unknown, perhaps even inexplicable, reason, it was known as Jew’s Bridge in 1764.

The lane running from Stonebridge to Paul’s Quay marks the boundary between the mediaeval parishes of Saint Doologe’s and Saint Mary’s

***

Meanwhile, Stonebridge Castle, which became a gaol in 1665, was used to hold prisoners during the 1798 Rising. A new gaol was built at Spawell Road in 1812, and Stonebridge Castle became a ‘Lunatic Asylum’ and a ‘house of industry’ for vagrants and prostitutes, where the inmates were used to clean the streets of the town.

Stonebridge Castle was eventually demolished in 1866 to provide land for development along the quays.

Stonebridge Lane is also known as Sinnott’s Place and Larkin Lane. For generations, the large stone buildings in this area once housed malt stores, coal depots and timber yards. The lane leads from the corner of South Main Street to Paul’s Quay, between the Talbot Stonebridge Apartments and the Talbot Hotel.

The Stonebridge apartments on Paul’s Quay were built originally in 2008 as a lavish, 73-apartment complex. But the economic crash struck, the building never opened for use, and the apartments lay vacant for eight years until they were bought for redevelopment by the Talbot Hotel group, and are now known as the Talbot Suites at Stonebridge.

However, I can find no documentary evidence of even a small Jewish community in Wexford in the mid-18th century, and certainly no evidence of a synagogue in the town.

The site of Stonebridge in Wexford … known as Jew’s Bridge in 1764

This two-page feature was first published in April 2022 in the Church Review, the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan magazine

Four houses on Spawell Road and links between Wexford and the Battle of Waterloo

Richmond House, the main house of the former Loreto Convent in Wexford, was first built by the Duke of Richmond in 1792 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The main house of the former Loreto Convent in Wexford is now a sorry sight on Spawell Road, surrounded by steel fencing and security notices.

But this house, once known as Richmond House, is of architectural value, and has historical associations with both the 1798 Rising and the Battle of Waterloo, with the famous Lennox sisters, and with a celebrated Victorian-era Mayor of Wexford.

The former Richmond House, which gives its name to later housing developments in the Spawell Road area of Wexford, was first built in 1792 by Charles Lennox (1764-1819), who succeeded his uncle as the fourth Duke of Richmond in 1806. This three-bay, three-storey over basement house was built on a square plan, with the ground floor centred on a prostyle distyle portico.

Charles Lennox, who built the house, was a nephew of the Lennox sisters, four 18th century aristocrats who inspired Stella Tillyard’s book the six-part BBC mini-series Aristocrats.

These four sisters were: Lady Caroline Fox (1723-1774), 1st Baroness Holland, Lady Emily FitzGerald (1731-1814), Duchess of Leinster, Lady Louisa Conolly (1743-1821) of Castletown House, Co Kildare, and Lady Sarah Napier (1745-1826) of Celbridge House, Co Kildare.

This means the future duke who built Richmond House in Wexford six years before the 1798 Rising, was a first cousin of both Lord Edward FitzGerald, one of the leading figures in the United Irishmen, and General Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853), famous as the captor of Sindh but also Governor of Kephalonia – ‘Captain Corelli’s’ island – and leading Philhellene during the Greek War of Independence in the mid-19th century.

Charles Lennox became the 4th Duke of Richmond on 29 December 1806, after the death of his uncle, Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond. In April 1807, he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and he continued in office until 1813.

The duke took part in the Napoleonic Wars and in 1815 he was in command of a reserve force in Brussels that was protecting the city in case Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo.

On 15 June 1815, the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras, his wife – the former Lady Charlotte Gordon – held a ball for his fellow officers. The glittering celebration became famous as the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball and is referred to by William Makepeace Thackeray in Vanity Fair and by Lord Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

Although the Duke observed the Battle of Quatre Bras the next day, as well as the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June, he did not take part in either, his role being in the defence of the city of Brussels.

Richmond became Governor General of Canada, then known as British North America, in 1818, but his time there was cut short unexpectedly. Richmond was on a tour of Canada, in 1819 when he was bitten on the hand by a fox. The injury apparently healed and he continued on the tour, but later in his journey the initial symptoms of hydrophobia appeared, a clear sign of Rabies. The disease developed rapidly, and he died 28 August 1819. He was buried at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Quebec.

The architectural value of Richmond House includes the compact square plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase with good quality workmanship. The windows diminish in scale on each floor, producing a graduated visual impression.

In the Victorian era, Richmond House was the home of William White (1803-1865) and later of Alderman John Greene JP (1803-1890), seven times Mayor of Wexford and founder of the Wexford Independent.

Long before town planning, streetscaping and public water systems, Greene had a vision for supplying clean water to the people of Wexfcord town, raising the quality of life and the standards of living of Wexford’s growing population. When he was Mayor of Wexford in 1854, he erected ‘The Cock,’ the fountain on John Street that determines your identity and your place in Wexford, including who you supported in football and hurling – the John Street Volunteers or the Faythe Harriers.

The Loreto nuns moved into Richmond House in 1886, and their school grew up around the house. The ‘classical additions’ to the house in the early 20th century have been ascribed to the Dublin architect William Henry Byrne (1844-1917).

Until recently, the original house was well maintained, with the elementary form and massing surviving intact along with quantities of the original fabric, both outside and inside, despite the introduction of replacement windows in most of the windows.

The house, set back from the street, once stood in landscaped grounds and was part of a self-contained group alongside the adjoining former convent and school that once formed a pleasant ensemble on Spawell Road.

Wellington Cottage, also known simply as ‘The Cottage’ … built in 1863 ‘in the enriched Tudor style’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Another connection with the Battle of Waterloo on Spawell Road is provided by the gate lodge at Clifton which was once known as Wellington Cottage, or simply as ‘The Cottage.’

This gate lodge has been carefully restored in recent years. It has contributed positively to the group and setting of the Clifton estate, and was part of the continued development of the adjoining Ardara estate by Joseph Harvey (1809-1890).

In the Victorian era, it was admired as a ‘new and beautiful gate lodge in the enriched Tudor style’ that ‘excites in an especial manner the admiration of the visitor.’

It was built on a compact plan form centred on an expressed porch displaying the Harvey family coat of arms. Its picturesque appearance is enhanced by the multipartite glazing patterns, and the ‘spikey’ pinnacles embellishing the roofline.

It was recently restored after a prolonged period of being left unoccupied.

The cottage or gate lodge stands at the entrance to Clifton, a house on Spawell Road built in 1895 by Thomas Reilly on a plot bought from the neighbouring Ardara estate.

Clifton also has connections with Nicholas Byrne, one-time Mayor of Wexford, who died in 1951.

Clifton was built in 1895 by Thomas Reilly on a plot on Spawell Road bought from the neighbouring Ardara estate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Close-by, Ard Ruadh Manor is a house that I have stayed in on Spawell Road. This house was built in 1893 by Mary O’Connor (1837-1927), an outstanding builder and developer in Wexford, who built a terrace of houses on Upper George’s Street, Wexford, in the 1870s and 1880s. She is an interesting example of a woman who was a property developer and building contractor at the end of the 19th century. She developed a number of other terraces of houses in Wexford, including Glena Terrace with eight houses on Spawell Road (1890-1895)

Ard Ruadh has eight bedrooms, a drawing room, kitchen-diner, family room, a lounge with bay, and mature, private landscaped grounds.

Ard Ruadh was built on a deliberate alignment to maximise the scenic vistas overlooking rolling grounds and the estuary of the River Slaney. It is notable for its vibrant yellow brick Flemish bond walls offset by diaper work-like terracotta dressings, with a yellow brick running bond plinth with vermiculated yellow terracotta quoins at the corners, yellow terracotta sills, and yellow terracotta window surrounds with rusticated pilasters.

Here too, the windows diminish in scale on each floor, producing a graduated visual impression. The main rooms have polygonal bay windows, and there is a half-dormer attic. Other architectural features in the house include the decorative timber work, a high pitched multi-gabled roofline, contemporary joinery, chimneypieces; and plasterwork refinements.

The house has family connections with William Henry Hadden (died 1916), a leading Wexford merchant, and Dr James A Pierce.

Ard Ruadh Manor on Spawell Road was sold at auction for €850,000 in April 2003 by Wexford auctioneer John Keane. Bidding opened at €500,000 but was very brisk, with four different bidders, and concluded at €850,000.

The house was bought by a local person who planned to use it as private house. But the security signs I saw around the house at the weekend make me wonder whether it is in danger of being lost to future developments on Spawell Road.

Ard Ruadh Manor on Spawell Road was built in 1893 by Mary O’Connor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)