Dublin the period 1850 to 1870, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, was the locale of fabled dinner parties hosted by widowed James Henry Monahan, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and his four attractive daughters.
The Monahans, ‘a sprightly and accomplished family,’ lived at No. 5 Fitzwilliam Square East. View it here.
According to the anonymous author of “Recollections of Dublin Castle and of Dublin Society” (1902), described only as ‘A Native’, during this period,
“Every physician or barrister who wished to ‘rise’ was ever struggling to get away from Mountjoy Square or Gardiner’s Place, and to cross Carlisle or O’Connell Bridge into the Promised Land of Fitzwilliam Place or Merrion Square.”
The same book also says that
“The rage for dining in Dublin, that is, for giving and going to dinner-parties, used to be truly extraordinary. The fashion was all for huge tables of twenty or thirty people. All the official people – judges, bishops – entertained on this vast scale… All was very well done, and the wines admirable – as most had fine cellars – and the city was always celebrated for its claret.”
Some more information on the Irish judges of this period, including Chief Justice Monahan, in this post.
Image of Fitzwilliam Square by Charles Ginner (1878-1952), via ArtUK.
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