Kildare Street Club
Encyclopedia
Gentlemen's club
A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...
in Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, at the heart of the Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
Protestant Ascendancy
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
.
The Club remained in Kildare Street
Kildare Street
Kildare Street is a well-known street in Dublin, the capital city of Ireland close to the principal shopping area of Grafton Street and Dawson Street, to which it is joined by Molesworth Street. Some Irish government departments have their offices on this street but it is most famous for Leinster...
between 1782 and 1977, when it merged with the Dublin University Club. Its second Kildare Street club house, built between 1859 and 1860, has not been disposed of but is now leased
Leasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
to a Heraldic Museum and the Alliance française
Alliance française
The Alliance française , or AF, is an international organisation that aims to promote French language and culture around the world. created in Paris on 21 July 1883, its primary concern is teaching French as a second language and is headquartered in Paris -History:The Alliance was created in Paris...
.
History
Founded in the year of the Constitution of 1782Constitution of 1782
The Constitution of 1782 is a collective term given to a series of legal changes which freed the Parliament of Ireland, a Medieval parliament consisting of the Irish House of Commons and the Irish House of Lords, of legal restrictions that had been imposed by successive Norman, English, and later,...
, the Club's first home was a house in Kildare Street built by Sir Henry Cavendish on land bought from James FitzGerald, 20th Earl of Kildare
James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster
Lieutenant-General James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, etc. PC , styled Lord Offaly until 1744 and known as The Earl of Kildare between 1744 and 1761 and as The Marquess of Kildare between 1761 and 1766, was an Irish nobleman, soldier and politician.-Background:Leinster was the son of Robert...
, later first Duke of Leinster
Duke of Leinster
Duke of Leinster is a title in the Peerage of Ireland and the premier dukedom in that peerage. The title refers to Leinster, but unlike the province the title is pronounced "Lin-ster"...
. In 1786 the club acquired an adjoining house also built by Cavendish, thus completing its original club house.
There is a tradition that what prompted the foundation of the Club was the blackballing of William Burton Conyngham
William Conyngham
William Burton Conyngham , politician and improver, was born William Burton, the second son of Francis Burton and Mary Conyngham, sister of Henry Conyngham, 1st Earl Conyngham. In 1781, his name was changed by Royal Licence to inherit the estates of his uncle.Conyngham was a longtime Member of...
at Daly's Club
Daly's Club
Daly's Club, with premises known as Daly's Club House, was a gentlemen's club in Dublin, Ireland, a centre of social and political life between its origins in about 1750 and its end in 1823.-History:...
in Dame Street
Dame Street
Dame Street is a large thoroughfare in Dublin, Ireland. The street is the location of many banks such as AIB, Ulster Bank and the Central Bank of Ireland. It is close to Ireland's oldest university, Trinity College, Dublin, founded in 1592, the entrance to which is a popular meeting spot.During...
. This led to an exodus of members from Daly's, who formed a new club which soon rivalled their old one as a fashionable haunt and which in the end eclipsed it. Although by the later 19th century the Club was closely associated with the Protestant Ascendancy
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
and Irish Unionism
Unionism in Ireland
Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain...
, nevertheless its earliest members included men strongly opposed to the British connection, such as Sir Jonah Barrington
Jonah Barrington (judge)
Sir Jonah Barrington , was one of no less than sixteen children, six at least, and probably seven were sons of John Barrington, a landowner in County Laois...
, who argued against the creation in 1801 of a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
.
In a famous incident at the Kildare Street Club in 1806, Earl Landaff
Francis Mathew, 2nd Earl Landaff
Francis James Mathew, 2nd Earl Landaff KP , styled The Honourable Francis Mathew from 1783 to 1797 and Viscount Mathew from 1797 to 1806, was an Irish peer and politician....
, a supporter of Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
, denounced the "eighty-five scoundrels" who had blackballed his brother Montague James Mathew
Montague James Mathew
Lieutenant General Montague James Mathew was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician, a member of the Irish House of Commons for Ballynakill until 1800 and of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom for County Tipperary from 1806 until his death in 1819.In politics, he was both a Whig and a...
, and stalked out of the Club, never to return.
By 1840, the Club had some six hundred and fifty members, "a large and elegant card-room, coffee, reading, and billiard-rooms". There was a committee of fifteen members, elected annually. Admission to membership was by ballot, with an entrance fee of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
26, 10s.
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
, and an annual subscription of £5.
In 1858, it was decided to build a new club house, as the original premises at 6, Kildare Street, were now too small for the club's needs. In 1859, the club was described in The Building News as "an institution famous for aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
, claret
Claret
Claret is a name primarily used in British English for red wine from the Bordeaux region of France.-Usage:Claret derives from the French clairet, a now uncommon dark rosé and the most common wine exported from Bordeaux until the 18th century...
and whist
Whist
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was played widely in the 18th and 19th centuries. It derives from the 16th century game of Trump or Ruff, via Ruff and Honours...
..." Between 1859 and 1860, the new club house was built, designed by Thomas Newenham Deane
Thomas Newenham Deane
Sir Thomas Newenham Deane was an Irish architect, the son of Sir Thomas Deane, and father of Sir Thomas Manly Deane, who were also architects....
and Benjamin Woodward
Benjamin Woodward
Benjamin Woodward was an Irish architect who, in partnership with Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, designed a number of buildings in Dublin....
, at a cost of some £21,000. This replaced three existing houses on Kildare Street and one on Leinster Street, which were demolished, giving an L-shaped new building, with an internal plan similar to that of the Reform Club
Reform Club
The Reform Club is a gentlemen's club on the south side of Pall Mall, in central London. Originally for men only, it changed to include the admission of women in 1981. In 2011 the subscription for membership of the Reform Club as a full UK member is £1,344.00, with a one-off entrance fee of £875.00...
in Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the...
. The club committee had altered Deane and Woodward's original Italian Gothic
Italian Gothic architecture
The Gothic architecture appeared in Italy in the 12th century. Italian Gothic always maintained peculiar characteristic which differentiated its evolution from that in France, where it had originated, and in other European countries...
design, insisting on large arch
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
ed windows divided by thin column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s, and the outcome was described as Byzantine
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...
. The new building is adorned by "whimsical beasts".
The club had planned to move from the old to the new building in 1861, but on 11 November 1860 there was a disastrous fire at the old club house. Three maids died, and a fourth was saved by being at the time in the bedroom of the club accountant, from which she was rescued. All of the club's pictures and furniture and a library of fifteen thousand books were destroyed, and the club moved into its new building before completion.
In Parnell and his Island (1887), George Moore
George Moore
George Moore may refer to:*George Edward Moore , G.E. Moore, British philosopher*George Moore , Member of Parliament for Dublin City 1826–1831*George Moore , landowner and High Sheriff of Derbyshire...
wrote scathingly of the Club:
Overwhelmingly Protestant
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
and Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
, in 1900 the club was called by a member "the only place in Ireland where one can enjoy decent caviar
Caviar
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. The roe can be "fresh" or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value....
". It has been estimated that at about this time only between two and six per cent of the Club's members were supporters of Irish Home Rule
Irish Home Rule Movement
The Irish Home Rule Movement articulated a longstanding Irish desire for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 by a demand for self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The movement drew upon a legacy of patriotic thought that dated back at least to the late 17th...
. The most popular Dublin club for the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
was the St Stephen's Green Club, while the Kildare Street Club was closely associated with the Irish Conservative Party
Irish Conservative Party
The Irish Conservative Party, often called the Irish Tories, was one of the dominant Irish political parties in Ireland in the 19th century...
and later the Irish Unionist Alliance.
After the partition of Ireland
Partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
of 1921, and again after the Second World War, the Kildare Street Club found itself in decline. In 1976 it merged with the Dublin University Club, thereafter sharing the premises of the latter at 17, St Stephen's Green. The Club's palatial club-house in Kildare Street still stands and is leased, providing accommodation for the Heraldic Museum and Genealogical Office and the Alliance française
Alliance française
The Alliance française , or AF, is an international organisation that aims to promote French language and culture around the world. created in Paris on 21 July 1883, its primary concern is teaching French as a second language and is headquartered in Paris -History:The Alliance was created in Paris...
.
Notable members
- Sir Jonah BarringtonJonah Barrington (judge)Sir Jonah Barrington , was one of no less than sixteen children, six at least, and probably seven were sons of John Barrington, a landowner in County Laois...
- Lord Henry FitzgeraldLord Henry FitzGeraldLord Henry FitzGerald PC was the fourth son of the 1st Duke of Leinster and the Duchess of Leinster . A younger brother was the revolutionary Lord Edward FitzGerald.-Life:...
- Arthur O'Connor of the Society of United Irishmen
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonArthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonField Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
- Robert Stewart, Viscount CastlereaghRobert Stewart, Viscount CastlereaghRobert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCH, PC, PC , usually known as Lord CastlereaghThe name Castlereagh derives from the baronies of Castlereagh and Ards, in which the manors of Newtownards and Comber were located...
- Sir Boyle RocheBoyle RocheSir Boyle Roche, 1st Baronet was an Irish politician. After a distinguished career in North America with the British Army, Roche became a member of the Irish House of Commons in 1775, generally acting in support of the viceregal government...
- Thomas ConollyThomas Conolly (1738–1803)Thomas Conolly was an Irish landowner.He was the son of William James Conolly of Castletown House, by his wife Lady Anne, daughter of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford...
- Sir William GregoryWilliam Henry GregorySir William Henry Gregory PC was an Anglo-Irish writer and politician.The only child of Robert Gregory and Elizabeth O'Hara Gregory, he was born at the Castle, in Dublin's Phoenix Park. From 1830 to 1835 he attended Harrow, where he was an award-winning student...
- Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount GoughHugh Gough, 1st Viscount GoughField Marshal Sir Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, KP, GCSI, KCB, PC , was an Irish British Army officer. He was said to have commanded in more general actions than any other British officer of the 19th century except the Duke of Wellington.- Early career :Born at Woodstown House, Co...
, of the First Anglo-Sikh WarFirst Anglo-Sikh WarThe First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company between 1845 and 1846. It resulted in partial subjugation of the Sikh kingdom.-Background and causes of the war:... - Henry Arthur Herbert of MuckrossMuckross HouseMuckross House is located on the small Muckross Peninsula between Muckross Lake and Lough Leane, two of the lakes of Killarney, from the town of Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland....
- Abraham Creighton, 2nd Earl ErneAbraham Creighton, 2nd Earl ErneAbraham Creighton, 2nd Earl Erne was an Irish peer and politician.He was the elder son of the 1st Earl Erne, by his first wife, Catherine Howard. Between 1790 and 1798, he represented Lifford in the Irish House of Commons. In Dublin, he was a member of the Kildare Street Club.In November 1798...
- William Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen
- William Lygon Pakenham, 4th Earl of Longford
- Edward Gibson, 1st Baron AshbourneEdward Gibson, 1st Baron AshbourneEdward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne PC, QC was an Irish lawyer and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.-Background and education:...
- Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of LongfordThomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of LongfordThomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford KP, MVO , known as Lord Silchester until 1887, was an Irish peer and soldier....
- David Plunket, 1st Baron RathmoreDavid Plunket, 1st Baron RathmoreDavid Robert Plunket, 1st Baron Rathmore PC, QC was an Irish lawyer and Conservative politician.-Background and education:...
- William Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley
In fiction
In the genreLiterary genre
A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult, or children's. They also must not be confused...
of new Sherlock Holmes stories, Peter Tremayne's "The Affray at the Kildare Street Club" appeared in The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures (1997). The story is set in 1873, when before going up to Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
Holmes is visiting Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
. He solves the theft at the Kildare Street Club of a hair-brush from an Irish duke
Peerage of Ireland
The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those titles of nobility created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl,...
, the thief proving to be Sebastian Moran
Sebastian Moran
Colonel Sebastian Moran is a fictional character, an enemy of Sherlock Holmes and the villain of the Sherlock Holmes short story The Adventure of the Empty House...
.