University College Dublin Press
Aspects of Irish Aristocratic Life
Essays on the Fitzgeralds and Carton House
9781906359713
Distributed for University College Dublin Press
Aspects of Irish Aristocratic Life
Essays on the Fitzgeralds and Carton House
For almost 800 years, from their arrival with the first wave of Anglo-Normans in 1169, the FitzGeralds - Earls of Kildare and, from 1766, Dukes of Leinster - were the pre-eminent noble family living in Ireland, dominating the social, political, economic and cultural landscapes. This collection of essays, by established and emerging scholars, draws together some of the most recent and specialised research on the family, providing original perspectives on various aspects of their aristocratic history. Individual contributions inform on how the family first settled in Kildare and rose to ascendancy and how they maintained political status through court connections in England and beyond. Thematically, the essays cover such topics as the architecture and material culture of the Big House, the creation of the great eighteenth-century aristocratic demesne and landscape at Carton, the final break-up of the family’s estates and its subsequent economic decline in the twentieth century.They examine the contributions made by individual members of the family to the social and cultural spheres in Ireland and further afield; their interest in local as well as international concerns; their enthusiasm for the arts, music and dancing; the relationship between employers and servants, dukes and the Catholic Church, younger sons and radicalism, the latter exemplified in the life of one of the more famous members of the family, Lord Edward FitzGerald, a leader of the Society of United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements, Foreword - Hon. Desmond Guinness List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Terence Dooley - The FitzGeralds - A Survey History, 1169-2013 Raymond Gillespie - The FitzGeralds and the Making of the Manor of Maynooth Mary Ann Lyons - The Kildare Ascendancy Carol O’Connor - Mabel Browne, Countess of Kildare, and the Restoration of the House of Kildare, 1552-1610 Colm Lennon - The Making of the Geraldines - The Kildare FitzGeralds and their Early Historians Arnold Horner - Creating a Landscape - Carton and its Setting Karol Mullaney-Dignam - ’French Horns Playing at Every Meal’ - Musical Activity at Carton, 1747-1895 Terence Dooley - ’Till my Further Orders’ - Rules Governing Servants at Carton in the mid-Eighteenth Century Alison FitzGerald - Desiring to ’Look Sprucish’ - Objects in Context at Carton William Laffan and Brendan Rooney - Painting Carton - The 2nd Duke of Leinster, Thomas Roberts and William Ashford Cormac Begadon - The 2nd Duke of Leinster and the Establishment of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth Liam Chambers - Family Politics and Revolutionary Convictions - The Career of Edward FitzGerald (1763-98) Arnold Horner - In the Shadow of the FitzGeralds - Maynooth c.1700 to c.1900 Elizabeth Heggs - Whig Politics and the 3rd Duke of Leinster (1791-1874) Ciaran Reilly - A Middleman in the 1840s - Charles Carey and the Leinster Estate Patrick Cosgrove - ’Sacrificed for Ready Money’ - The Leinster Estate and the Irish Land Question, 1870-1908 Thomas Nelson - Lord Frederick FitzGerald (1857-1924) and Local Politics in County Kildare Terence Dooley - ’The Fairy Godfather as Regards the Estate’ - Henry Mallaby-Deeley and Carton, 1922-37 Christopher Ridgway - The FitzGerald Legacy Notes Index