1.
County Roscommon
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County Roscommon is a county in the western region of the Republic of Ireland. It is also part of the province of Connacht and it is the 11th largest Irish county by area and 27th most populous. Its county town and largest town is Roscommon, Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 64,065 according to the 2011 census and it is the third largest of Connacht’s five counties by size and fourth largest in terms of population. The county borders every other Connacht county - Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim, in 2008, a news report said that statistically, Roscommon has the longest life expectancy of any county on the island of Ireland. County Roscommon is named after the county town of Roscommon, Roscommon comes from the Irish Ros meaning a wooded, gentle height and Comán, the first abbot and bishop of Roscommon who founded the first monastery there in 550 AD. Roscommon is the eleventh largest of the 32 counties of Ireland by area and it has an area of 984 square miles. Lough Key in north Roscommon is noted for having thirty-two islands, the geographical centre of Ireland is located on the western shore of Lough Ree in the south of the county. Seltannasaggart which is located along the border with County Leitrim is the tallest point in County Roscommon measuring to a height of 428 m. There are nine historical baronies in County Roscommon, south Roscommon Ballymoe shared with County Galway includes Ballymoe, Creggs and Glenamaddy. Rathcroghan, near Tulsk, a complex of sites, the home of Queen Medb, was the seat of Kings of Connacht. This was the point of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, or Cattle Raid of Cooley. County Roscommon as a division has its origins in the medieval period. With the conquest and division of the Kingdom of Connacht, those districts in the east retained by King John as The Kings Cantreds covered County Roscommon and these districts were leased to the native kings of Connacht and eventually became the county. In 1585 during the Tudor re-establishment of counties under the Composition of Connacht, a well defined and original fine metal workshop was active in county Roscommon in the twelfth century. The workshop has been linked to St. Assicus of Elphin, John ODonovan, historian and scholar, visited County Roscommon in 1837. He was compiling information for the Ordnance Survey, entering St. Peters parish in Athlone in June 1837, he wrote I have now entered upon ia region totally different from Longford, and am very much pleased with the intelligence of the people. But he had problems with place-names
2.
Royal Institute of British Architects
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After the grant of the royal charter it had become known as the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, eventually dropping the reference to London in 1892. In 1934, it moved to its current headquarters on Portland Place, with the building being opened by King George V and it was granted its Royal Charter in 1837 under King William IV. Supplemental Charters of 1887,1909 and 1925 were replaced by a single Charter in 1971, any revisions to the Charter or Byelaws require the Privy Councils approval. The design of the Institutes Mycenean lions medal and the motto ‘Usui civium, decori urbium has been attributed to Thomas Leverton Donaldson and it was again redesigned in 1931 by Eric Gill and in 1960 by Joan Hassall. His School, Liverpool, was one of the twenty schools named for the purpose of constituting the statutory Board of Architectural Education when the 1931 Act was passed. The RIBA Guide to its Archive and History has a section on the Statutory registration of architects with an extending from a draft bill of 1887 to one of 1969. This led to proposals for reconstituting ARCUK, eventually, in the 1990s, before proceeding, the government issued a consultation paper Reform of Architects Registration. RIBA Visiting Boards continue to assess courses for exemption from the RIBAs examinations in architecture, under arrangements made in 2011 the validation criteria are jointly held by the RIBA and the Architects Registration Board, but unlike the ARB, the RIBA also validates courses outside the UK. The RIBA is an organisation, with 44,000 members. Chartered Members are entitled to call themselves chartered architects and to append the post-nominals RIBA after their name, formerly, fellowships of the institute were granted, although no longer, those who continue to hold this title instead add FRIBA. Members gain access to all the services and receive its monthly magazine. The RIBA has been recognised as a business Superbrand since 2008, RIBA is based at 66 Portland Place, London—a 1930s Grade II* listed building designed by architect George Grey Wornum with sculptures by Edward Bainbridge Copnall and James Woodford. Parts of the London building are open to the public, including the Library and it has a large architectural bookshop, a café, restaurant and lecture theatres. Rooms are hired out for events, the Institute also maintains a dozen regional offices around the United Kingdom, it opened its first regional office for the East of England at Cambridge in 1966. It employs over 250 staff, approximately 180 of whom are based in Newcastle and its services include RIBA Insight, RIBA Appointments, and RIBA Publishing. It publishes the RIBA Product Selector and RIBA Journal, in Newcastle is the NBS, the National Building Specification, which has 130 staff and deals with the building regulations and the Construction Information Service. RIBA Bookshops, which operates online and at 66 Portland Place, is part of RIBA Enterprises. The British Architectural Library, sometimes referred to as the RIBA Library, was established in 1834 upon the founding of the institute with donations from members
3.
Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
4.
Philip Hardwick
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Philip Hardwick RA was an English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for Londons demolished Euston Arch and its twin station Birmingham Curzon Street, Hardwick was born at 9 Rathbone Place in Westminster, London. He was educated at Dr Barrows school in Soho Square and trained as an architect under his father, Thomas Hardwick, the Hardwick family name spans over 150 years in the history of British architecture. Philip Hardwick entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1808 and then studied in France, after travelling Europe, he took over from his father as Surveyor to St Bartholomews Hospital, London. This post later passed on to Philips son – Philip Charles Hardwick, in 1825 he was appointed architect to the St Katherines Dock Company, for whom he designed the dock buildings, Thomas Telford designing the docks themselves. In 1829 he became architect to the Goldsmiths Company, designing a new hall for them which was opened in 1835, in 1836 Hardwick became architect to the London and Birmingham Railway. He built a great Doric propylaeum, which known as the Euston Arch. In 1838 he built the Curzon Street Station as the railways Birmingham terminus and it is an austere cubic three-story building in the Ionic style, with a portico of four giant Ionic columns. At Babraham Hall in 1822-3, on the site of a long-demolished sixteenth-century house, Hardwick adopted a Jacobean style, brick was used again at Lincolns Inn, when, in 1843-5, Hardwick, in collaboration with his son, built a new hall and library. They used a Tudor style, the red brick varied with black brick decoration, Hardwick gained a reputation as a surveyor and was employed by the Westminster Bridge estates, the Portman London estate, Greenwich Hospital, and the estate of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. He was also surveyor to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, in 1831 his father in law, architect John Shaw Senior, helped elect Hardwick as a fellow of the Royal Society. Hardwick was a member of the Institute of British Architects – later the RIBA – and was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In 1839 he was one of the judges for the new Royal Exchange building in the City of London and he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1839, and became a Royal Academician in 1841. In 1854, he received the seventh Royal Gold Medal for architecture, Philip married Julia Shaw in 1819, at St Jamess Church, Piccadilly. Julias father, John Shaw Sr. and brother, John Shaw Jr. were both architects, the two families lived close by within the boroughs of Westminster and Holborn. Philip Hardwick had two sons, the eldest died of smallpox whilst still at Eton, the younger, Philip Charles Hardwick, was born in 1822, Philip Charles began working in the firm around 1843. Philip Hardwicks pupils included John Loughborough Pearson, Gothic revival architect of Truro Cathedral, Thomas Henry Wyatt, T. Roger Smith, Hardwick was a close friend of the artist J. M. W. Turner, who had been a pupil of his father. In 1851 Turner chose Hardwick as an executor to his will, Hardwick and much of his extended family were buried at Kensal Green Cemetery
5.
Euston railway station
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Euston railway station is a central London railway terminus located on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus of the West Coast Main Line to Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh. The line is the busiest intercity passenger route in Britain and the gateway from London to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales. The main line station is connected to Euston tube station and is near to Euston Square tube station on the London Underground and it is one of 19 stations in the country that are managed by Network Rail. Euston is the sixth-busiest station in Britain, virgin Trains provides high-speed intercity services, London Midland also operates local commuter and regional services as well as long-distance services. Euston is also the terminus of the suburban Watford DC Line operated by London Overground. It was the first intercity railway station to be built in London, as the terminus of the London, the original 1837 station was demolished and rebuilt in the 1960s. Euston is proposed to be the London terminus of the future High Speed 2 route and it is a short walk from Kings Cross, the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line, and St Pancras for Midland Main Line and Eurostar services. These stations and Euston are all in Travelcard Zone 1, Euston was the first intercity railway station in London, opened on 20 July 1837 as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway. The building was demolished in the 1960s and replaced with the present building in the modern style. The site was chosen in the early 1830s by George and Robert Stephenson, the area was mostly farmland at the edge of the expanding city. The station was named after Euston Hall in Suffolk, the home of the Dukes of Grafton. Objections by local farmers meant that, when the Act authorising construction of the line was passed in 1833 and these objections were overcome, and in 1835 an Act authorised construction of the station, which then went ahead. It was designed by the classically trained architect Philip Hardwick with a 200 ft -long trainshed by structural engineer Charles Fox and it had two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals. Also by Hardwick was a 72 ft -high Doric propylaeum, the largest ever built, erected at the entrance as a portico, the station grew rapidly as traffic increased. It was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall and it was 126 ft long,61 ft wide and 64 ft high, with a coffered ceiling and a sweeping double flight of stairs leading to offices at its northern end. Architectural sculptor John Thomas contributed eight allegorical statues representing the cities served by the line. The station stood on Drummond Street, further back from Euston Road than the front of the complex, Drummond Street now terminates at the side of the station
6.
St Katharine Docks
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St Katharine Docks, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, were one of the commercial docks serving London, on the north side of the river Thames just east of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. They were part of the Port of London, in the now known as the Docklands. St Katharine Docks took their name from the hospital of St Katharines by the Tower, built in the 12th century. An intensely built-up 23 acre site was earmarked for redevelopment by an Act of Parliament in 1825, some 1250 houses were demolished, together with the medieval hospital of St. Katharine. Around 11,300 inhabitants, mostly port workers crammed into unsanitary slums, lost their homes, the scheme was designed by engineer Thomas Telford and was his only major project in London. To create as much quayside as possible, the docks were designed in the form of two linked basins, both accessed via a lock from the Thames. Steam engines designed by James Watt and Matthew Boulton kept the level in the basins about four feet above that of the tidal river. By 1830, the docks had cost over £2 million to build, Telford aimed to minimise the amount of quayside activity and specified that the docks warehouses be built right on the quayside so that goods could be unloaded directly into them. The docks were opened on 25 October 1828. Although well used, they were not a commercial success and were unable to accommodate large ships. They were amalgamated in 1864 with the neighbouring London Docks, in 1909, the Port of London Authority took over the management of almost all of the Thames docks, including the St Katharine. The St Katharine Docks were badly damaged by German bombing during the Second World War, all the warehouses around the eastern basin were destroyed, and the site they had occupied remained derelict until the 1990s. Because of their very restricted capacity and inability to cope with large ships, the St Katharine Docks were among the first to be closed in 1968. This was followed by the World Trade Centre Building and Commodity Quay, development around the eastern basin was completed in the 1990s. The docks themselves becoming a marina, the development has often been cited as a model example of successful urban redevelopment. There was at one point a plan to open a St Katharine Docks tube station on the proposed Fleet line and it would have been between Fenchurch Street and Wapping. An eastwards extension was built as part of the Jubilee line. The closest stations to the Docks today are Tower Hill and Tower Gateway DLR station, between 2005 and 2008 the former Danish lightship Lightship X was moored on the west dock, and used as a restaurant, before returning to Denmark
7.
Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea
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Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea PC was an English statesman and a close ally and confidant of Florence Nightingale. The Woronzow Road in St Johns Wood, London, is named after the family, educated at Harrow and Oriel College, Oxford, he made a reputation at the Oxford Union as a speaker. Herbert entered the House of Commons as Conservative member of Parliament for a division of Wiltshire in 1832, Herbert was a member of the Canterbury Association from 20 March 1848. Herbert ran the Pembroke family estates, centered at Wilton House, Wiltshire and it was Sidney Herbert who sent Florence Nightingale out to Scutari, and with Nightingale led the movement for Army Health and War Office reform after the war. The hard work entailed caused a breakdown in his health, so that in July 1861, having created a baron in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He died from Brights disease on 2 August 1861, in 1846 Sidney Herbert married Elizabeth, only daughter of Lt. -Gen. Charles Ash à Court-Repington and niece of William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury and she was a philanthropist, author and translator, and a friend of Benjamin Disraeli, Cardinal Manning and Cardinal Vaughan. After her husbands death, Lady Herbert became an ardent ultramontane Roman Catholic, along with their eldest daughter, Sidney Herbert, also a Member of Parliament, who succeeded his brother as the 14th Earl of Pembroke. William Reginald Herbert, lost at sea aboard HMS Captain, aged 16 and he m.1888 Lelia, daughter of Richard Thornton Wilson, Sr. a New York banker and cotton broker, and had Sir Sidney Herbert, 1st Baronet. Mary Catherine, who m.1873 the great modernist theologian, Elizabeth Maud, who m.1872 the composer, Sir Charles Hubert Parry, 1st Baronet, of Highnam Court, near Gloucester. 1st 1878 St George Henry Lowther, 4th Earl of Lonsdale, 2ndly 1885 Frederick Oliver Robinson, the Earl de Grey, later 2nd and last Marquess of Ripon. Sidney Herbert is buried in the churchyard at Wilton, rebuilt by his father in neo-Romanesque style, with inside the church a marble effigy of him beside Elizabeth. Herbert Sound in the Antarctic and Pembroke, Ontario in Canada are named after Sidney Herbert, Mount Herbert, the highest peak on Banks Peninsula, was named by the chief surveyor of the Canterbury Association, Joseph Thomas, in 1849. Crimean War Memorial Mount Merrion Royal Herbert Hospital Sir Tresham Lever, The Herberts of Wilton Burkes Peerage, 107th edition Mark Bostridge, Florence Nightingale. The Woman and Her Legend Works by or about Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea at Internet Archive Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Lord Herbert of Lea
8.
Middlesex Hospital
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The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened in 1745 by Edinburgh Medical School trained surgeon Charles Bell on Windmill Street and its staff and services were transferred to various sites within the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. The Middlesex Hospital Medical School, with a history dating back to 1746, the first Middlesex Hospital opened in 1745 as the Middlesex Infirmary in Windmill Street, London W1, named after the county of Middlesex. The infirmary started with 18 beds to provide treatment for the poor. Funding came from subscriptions and, in 1747, the became the first in England to add lying-in beds. The second Middlesex Hospital, in Mortimer Street, was opened in 1757, the foundation stone was laid in 1755 by the hospitals president, the Earl of Northumberland. The Hospital was Incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1836, allowing it various benefits as a charity, over the years extra wings were added but, in 1924, it was decided that the building was structurally unsound and an entirely new building would be required. The Duke of York, later King George VI, visited the hospital on 26 June 1928 to lay the foundation stone of the new building and he returned to open the completed building on 29 May 1935. The hospital had been rebuilt, on the same site and in stages, without ever being closed. The nurses home in Foley Street was connected to the hospital by underground tunnels to allow safe and convenient access for nursing staff at night. In 1992 the St. Peters Hospitals were closed down and moved into new accommodation in the Middlesex Hospital, although the former county name Middlesex is common to all, there was no working connection between the Middlesex Hospital and the North Middlesex, Central Middlesex and West Middlesex Hospitals. The Middlesex Hospital Medical School traced its origins to 1746, when students were walking the wards. The motto of the school, Miseris Succurrere Disco, was provided by one of the deans, Dr William Cayley, from Virgils Queen Dido aiding a shipwreck, Non ignara mali. This refusal prompted the foundation of the North London Hospital, now University College Hospital, the medical schools of the Middlesex Hospital and University College Hospital merged in 1987 to form the University College and Middlesex School of Medicine. The current UCL Medical School, which resulted from the merger of UCMSM, the Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School was opened by Samuel Augustine Courtauld in 1928, the foundation stone having been laid on 20 July 1927. Its main entrance was in Riding House Street, Courtauld also endowed a Chair of Biochemistry. Notable researchers at the institute include Frank Dickens FRS, Edward Charles Dodds FRS, the Middlesex Hospital closed in December 2005. The chapel of 1890, designed by John Loughborough Pearson, the Grade II listed stone and brick building on the corner of Nassau and Mortimer Street was also preserved
9.
National Churches Trust
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Its forerunner was the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, whose functions it has taken over, together with those of the Incorporated Church Building Society. By the middle of the 20th century, the fabric of many British church buildings was in a state of repair. This had followed socioeconomic changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including population changes, matters came to a head in 1950 with public statements, including an editorial in The Times. About this time the Pilgrim Trust declared that it was ceasing to give grants for repairs to individual churches, the Church of England Assembly established the Repair of Churches Commission to decide what should be done about the problem. This resulted in the creation of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust and its first Secretary and Executive Committee Chairman was Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, a Conservative politician, the role of Secretary being taken over later in 1953 by Hugh Llewellyn Jones. At the time of its foundation, it was estimated that a total of £4 million was necessary to fulfil its aims. Money was raised in a variety of ways, including appeals on radio and television, exhibitions, concerts, individual and corporate donations, support was received from charitable trusts, including the Pilgrim Trust, the Dulverton Trust, the Manifold Trust, and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. From the time of its creation, the Trust gave grants for the repair of both active and redundant churches, although the care of redundant churches was strictly beyond its remit. In 1960 the Bridges Commission recommended that a new fund be set up under a new Pastoral Measure to preserve churches of acknowledged historic or architectural worth. The Pastoral Measure of 1968 led to the creation of the Redundant Churches Fund and it took until 1984 to raise the first £4 million. After that the size of donations tended to be larger, and by the end of 2005 a total of over £27 million had been raised. In 2000 alone over £2.2 million was received, the size of grants made to churches has varied greatly. The criterion for the award of a grant was for repairs to any place of worship over 100 years old which is of a recognized Christian denomination and is open for public worship. Initially available only to churches in England, the scheme was extended to churches, the decision to award a grant is made by the Trusts Grants committee. Some of the churches that have been helped are now closed and have been declared redundant and these are now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. In 1983 the Historic Churches Preservation Trust took over the management of the Incorporated Church Building Society and this had been founded in 1818 to assist Anglican churches of any age, sometimes giving grants for new churches. In the early 1990s a Friends scheme was instituted, in 2006 the Trust took over the functions of the Open Churches Trust. The Historic Churches Preservation Trust was succeeded by the National Churches Trust in 2007, the National Churches Trust is a registered charity
10.
Duke of Beaufort
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The name Beaufort refers to a castle in Champagne, France. It is the current dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles. The Dukes of Beaufort descend in the line from the House of Plantagenet through John of Gaunt. Beaufort Castle was a possession of John of Gaunt, and the surname Beaufort was given to Gaunts four legitimised children by his mistress and third wife and this was the foundation of the House of Beaufort, Dukes of Somerset. A descendant of the Beauforts through his mother was Henry Tudor, Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, KG was the bastard son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset by his mistress Joan Hill. The Duke of Beaufort holds two subsidiary titles, Marquess of Worcester and Earl of Worcester, the title Marquess of Worcester is used as a courtesy title by the dukes eldest son and heir. The title Earl of Glamorgan is used by the eldest son of the apparent to the dukedom. The Earl of Glamorgans eldest son is known as Viscount Grosmont, the Earldom of Glamorgan and Viscountcy of Grosmont derive from an irregular creation by Charles I in 1644 in favour of Edward Somerset, who later succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess of Worcester. All subsidiary titles are in the Peerage of England, field Marshal The Lord Raglan, born Lord FitzRoy Somerset, was the youngest son of the fifth duke. The family seat was once Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire, but as of 2017 is Badminton House near Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire, the principal burial place of the Dukes and Duchesses of Beaufort is St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton. Following the creation of the dukedom, each successive duke has served as Master of the Duke of Beauforts Hunt, for previous creations of the same title, see Earl of Worcester. He has a claim to the invention of the steam engine, david Robert Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort, great-grandson of Rt. Hon. Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset, second son of the 8th Duke The heir apparent is Henry John FitzRoy Somerset, Marquess of Worcester, the heir apparents heir apparent is his son Henry Robert FitzRoy Somerset, Earl of Glamorgan, his eldest son. In heraldry, a bordure compony is traditionally used to designate illegitimacy, since the original Beaufort siblings father was of the English royal family, the English royal arms are used. At that time, the king of England also claimed the French crown, hence the inclusion of the French royal arms
11.
Anglo-Irish people
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Many became eminent as administrators in the British Empire and as senior army and naval officers. The term is not usually applied to Presbyterians in the province of Ulster, whose ancestry is mostly Scottish, rather than English or Irish, the Anglo-Irish held a wide range of political views, with many of them being outspoken Irish Nationalists. And while many of the Anglo-Irish were part of the English diaspora in Ireland, in the course of the 17th century, this Anglo-Irish landed class replaced the Gaelic Irish and Old English aristocracies as the ruling class in Ireland. They were also referred to as New English to distinguish them from the Old English who descended from the medieval Hiberno-Norman settlers and those who converted to the Church of Ireland were usually able to keep or regain their lost property, as the issue was primarily one of allegiance. In the late 18th century the Parliament of Ireland in Dublin won legislative independence, the Anglo-Irish social class was usually of mixed English and Irish or Welsh ancestry. Members of this class commonly identified themselves as Irish, while retaining English habits in politics, commerce. They participated in the popular English sports of the day, particularly racing and fox hunting, many of the more successful of them spent much of their careers either in Great Britain or in some part of the British Empire. Many constructed large houses, which became known in Ireland as Big Houses. The Dublin working class playwright Brendan Behan, a staunch Irish Republican, saw the Anglo-Irish as Irelands leisure class, the Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Bowen memorably described her experience as feeling English in Ireland, Irish in England and not accepted fully as belonging to either. Due to their prominence in the military and their conservative politics and they also controlled financial companies such as the Bank of Ireland and Goodbody Stockbrokers. Prominent Anglo-Irish poets, writers, and playwrights include Jonathan Swift, George Berkeley, Oliver Goldsmith, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, J. M. Synge, W. B. Yeats, Cecil Day-Lewis, Bernard Shaw, Augusta, Lady Gregory, Samuel Beckett, Giles Cooper, C. S. Lewis, Lord Longford, the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was also an Anglo-Irishman. Medical experts included Sir William Wilde, Robert Graves, Thomas Wrigley Grimshaw, William Stokes, Robert Collis, Sir John Lumsden, William Desmond Taylor was an early and prolific maker of silent films in Hollywood. Philanthropists included Thomas Barnardo and The 1st Earl of Iveagh, the Anglo-Irish, as a class, were mostly opposed to the notions of Irish independence and Home Rule. Most were supporters of continued political union with Great Britain, which existed between 1800 and 1922, however, Protestants in Ireland, and the Anglo-Irish class in particular, were by no means universally attached to the cause of continued political union with Great Britain. For instance, author Jonathan Swift, a clergyman in the Church of Ireland, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 was led by members of the Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots class, some of whom feared the political implications of the impending union with Great Britain. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, Irish nationalism became increasingly tied to a Roman Catholic identity, by the beginning of the twentieth century, many Anglo-Irishmen in southern Ireland had become convinced of the need for a political settlement with Irish nationalists. Anglo-Irish politicians such as Sir Horace Plunkett and Lord Monteagle became leading figures in finding a solution to the Irish question
Media related to Thomas Henry Wyatt at Wikimedia Commons
