Court and City in Restoration Dublin

  • Robin Usher
Chapter
Part of the Early Modern History: Society and Culture book series

Abstract

King Charles II’s Ireland is no longer a gaping cavity in the secondary literature. The politics and socio-economic developments of the era have been anatomised in a range of theses and monographs, and are the subject of a recent essay collection.1 But coverage is still unsystematic. Excepting work by Toby Barnard (on commodities),2 Jane Fenlon (on aristocratic patronage of the visual arts),3 Raymond Gillespie (on the book),4 Nuala Burke (on urban growth), and Rolf Loeber and Edward McParland (on architecture),5 few have investigated the material footprints of the period which, as the sources show, left their strongest impressions on the capital.6 A letter from the philosopher William Molyneux to his brother in 1684 illustrates the changes. Molyneux’s younger sibling, studying in the Netherlands, is told that ‘we are come to fine things here in Dublin, and you would wonder how our city increases sensibly in fair buildings, great trade, and splendour in all things, — in furniture, coaches, civility and housekeeping’.7 With the economic stabilisation of the 1670s and immigration from Britain and the rural hinterland, a market for non-staple goods sprouted; simultaneously, fresh architectural styles, European in origin, spread to the city’s residential and public spaces.8

Keywords

Royal Hospital Grand Jury Privy Council Damage Trade Ground Storey 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

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© Robin Usher 2012

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  • Robin Usher

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