During his early political career, Hill is identified with the Whigs and supports the reform of Parliament. After the Grey Ministry comes to power, he receives a succession of appointments, becoming Colonel of the South Down Militia on March 25, 1831, and carrying the second sword at the coronation of William IV on September 8. He is appointed a deputy lieutenant of Berkshire on September 20, Lord Lieutenant of Down on October 17 (a new office replacing the Governor of Down), and finally a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on November 24, 1831. He receives an honorary LL.D. from the University of Cambridge on July 6, 1835.
Hill is a very strong supporter of the Irish language, and is president of the Ulster Gaelic Society (est. 1830). In this capacity he plays an important role in helping preserve records of the language, poetry, folk and song collections and much else.
Hill is disliked by Elizabeth Smith, diarist at Baltyboys House, County Wicklow, who feels snubbed by him when she and her husband first move into the area. Writing of him after his death she recalls “The late Lord never called upon me when I first came here although the Colonel waited upon him. The Colonel never went near him again.”
High-minded, if also at times high-handed in manner and self-important, Hill works hard himself and expects all his employees and tenants to be equally conscientious. Naturally, he is often disappointed. He is particularly concerned about his failure, despite all efforts and exhortations, to make his southern estates as efficient and well behaved as those in the north. Though an absentee owner in the south, he visits both Blessington and Edenderry regularly. It is during one of these periodic tours of inspection that he drops dead at Blessington on September 12, 1845. He is buried in St. Malachy Parish Churchyard at Royal Hillsborough, County Down. The funeral attracts an enormous crowd of mourners and is reported at some length in TheIllustrated London News. His memory is perpetuated in an impressive pillar monument, with his statue on top, erected at Hillsborough in 1848.
Walter is born in Norfolk, England, in 1165, the son of Hervey Walter and his wife, Matilda de Valoignes, who is one of the daughters of Theobald de Valoignes. Their children were Theobald, Hubert, Bartholomew, Roger, and Hamon. He and his brother Hubert are brought up by their uncle Ranulf de Glanvill, the great justiciar of Henry II of England who had married his mother’s sister Bertha.
On April 25, 1185, Prince John, in his new capacity as Lord of Ireland, lands at Waterford and around this time grants the hereditary office of butler of Ireland to Walter, whereby he and his successors are to attend the Kings of England at their coronation, and on that day present them with the first cup of wine. His father had been the hereditary holder of the office of butler of England. Sometime after, King Henry II of England grants him the prisage of wines, to enable him and his heirs, the better to support the dignity of that office. By this grant, he has two barrels of wine out of every ship, which breaks bulk in any trading port of Ireland, and is loaded with 20 tons of that commodity, and one ton from 9 to 20. He accompanies John on his progress through Munster and Leinster. At this time, he is also granted a large section of the north-eastern part of the Kingdom of Limerick. The grant of five and a half cantreds is bounded by:
“…the borough of Killaloe and the half cantred of Trucheked Maleth in which it lay, and the cantreds of Elykarval, Elyochgardi, Euermond, Aros and Wedene, and Woedeneoccadelon and Wodeneoidernan.”
Walter is active in the war that takes place when Rory O’Connor attempts to regain his throne after retiring to the monastery of Cong (present day County Mayo), as his men are involved in the death of Donal Mor McCarthy during a parley in 1185 near Cork. In 1194, he supports his brother during Hubert’s actions against Prince John, with him receiving the surrender of John’s supporters in Lancaster. He is rewarded with the office of sheriff of Lancaster, which he holds until Christmas of 1198. He is again sheriff after John takes the throne in 1199.
In early 1200, however, John deprives Walter of all his offices and lands because of his irregularities as sheriff. His lands are not restored until January 1202. A manuscript in the National Library of Ireland points to William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, as the agent of his restoration:
“Grant by William de Braosa, (senior) to Theobald Walter (le Botiller) the burgh of Kildelon (Killaloe) … the cantred of Elykaruel (the baronies of Clonlisk and Ballybrit, County Offaly), Eliogarty, Ormond, Ara and Oioney, etc. 1201.”
“Elykaruel” refers to the Gaelic túath of “Ely O’Carroll”, which straddles the southern part of County Offaly and the northern part of Tipperary (at Ikerrin). The other cantreds named are probably the modern baronies of Eliogarty, Ormond Upper, Ormond Lower and Owney and Arra in County Tipperary.
Walter founds the Abbey of Woney, of which nothing now remains, in the townland of Abington, near the modern village of Murroe in County Limerick around 1200. He also founds the Cockersand Abbey in Lancaster, Abbey of Nenagh in County Tipperary, and a monastic house at Arklow in County Wicklow.
Walter marries Maud le Vavasour (1176–1226), heiress of Robert le Vavasour, a baron of Yorkshire. John Lodge in the Peerage of Ireland in 1789 gives the year as 1189, but on no apparent authority, as no other author follows him on this. Their children are Theobald le Botiller, 2nd Chief Butler of Ireland, and Maud (1192–1244), who marries three times yet only has two surviving children, Ralph and Marie.
Walter dies on February 4, 1206, at Arklow Castle, County Wicklow, and is buried at Wotheney Abbey.
Dublin Zoo, located in Phoenix Park, Dublin, opens on September 1, 1831. It is the largest zoo in Ireland and one of Dublin’s most popular attractions. The zoo describes its role as conservation, study, and education. Its stated mission is to “work in partnership with zoos worldwide to make a significant contribution to the conservation of the endangered species on Earth.”
Covering over 28 hectares (69 acres) of Phoenix Park, the Dublin Zoo is divided into areas named Asian Forests, Orangutan Forest, The Kaziranga Forest Trail, Fringes of the Arctic, Sea Lion Cove, African Plains, Roberts House, House of Reptiles, City Farm and South American House.
The Royal Zoological Society of Ireland is established at a meeting held at the Rotunda Hospital on May 10, 1830. The zoo, then called the Zoological Gardens Dublin, initially opens to the public with 46 mammals and 72 birds, all donated by London Zoo.
The initial entry charge per person is sixpence, which is a sizable sum at the time and limits admission to relatively wealthy middle-class people. What makes Dublin Zoo very different from some of its contemporaries is a decision to reduce the charge to one penny on Sundays. This makes a day at the zoo something that nearly every Dubliner can afford once in a while and it becomes very popular.
In 1833, the original cottage-style entrance lodge to the zoo is built at a cost of £30. The thatch-roofed building is still visible to the right of the current entrance. In 1838, to celebrate Queen Victoria‘s coronation, the zoo holds an open day on which 20,000 people visit. This remains the highest number of visitors in one day. President of the United StatesUlysses S. Grant, after leaving office, is among the celebrities who come to see Dublin’s world-famous lions in the 19th century. In 1844 the zoo receives its first giraffe, and in 1855 it purchases its first pair of lions.
In 2015, Dublin Zoo is the third most popular visitor attraction in Ireland with 1,105,005 visitors.
Dublin Zoo is part of a worldwide programme to breed endangered species. It is a member of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP), which helps the conservation of endangered species in Europe. Each species supervised by the EEP has a single coordinator that is responsible for the building of breeding groups with the aim of obtaining a genetically balanced population.
Dublin Zoo manages the EEP for the golden lion tamarin and the Moluccan cockatoo. It also houses members of the species Goeldi’s monkey and the white-faced saki monkey which are part of EEPs coordinated by other zoos. The focus is on conservation, which includes breeding and protecting endangered species, as well as research, study and education.
The second surviving son of Charles I, James ascends the throne upon the death of his brother, Charles II. There is little initial opposition to his accession, and there are widespread reports of public rejoicing at the orderly succession. The new Parliament that assembles in May 1685, which gains the name of “Loyal Parliament,” is initially favourable to James, and the new King sends word that even most of the former exclusionists will be forgiven if they acquiesce to his rule.
Members of Britain’s Protestant political elite increasingly suspect him of being pro-French and pro-Catholic and of having designs on becoming an absolute monarch. When he produces a Catholic heir, leading nobles call on his Protestant son-in-law and nephew William of Orange to land an invasion army from the Dutch Republic, which he does in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James flees England and thus is held to have abdicated. He is replaced by his eldest, Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange.
James is best known for his struggles with the English Parliament and his attempts to create religious liberty for English Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists, against the wishes of the Anglican establishment. This tension makes James’s four-year reign a struggle for supremacy between the English Parliament and the Crown, resulting in his deposition, the passage of the Bill of Rights, and the accession of his daughter and her husband as king and queen.
The Act is bitterly resented by nationalists who see it as being deliberately designed to suppress their identity. Although it does not refer explicitly to the Irish tricolour, it does the Union Flag. The Act gives the Royal Ulster Constabulary a positive duty to remove any flag or emblem from public or private property which is considered to be likely to cause a breach of the peace, but legally exempts the Union Flag from ever being considered a breach of the peace. As a result, of all the flags likely to be displayed in Northern Ireland, almost exclusively the Irish tricolour would be deemed a breach of the peace. However, the Act is not a wholesale ban on the Irish flag, and it is often allowed to remain flying, especially at Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) grounds.
The Act is introduced at a time of some turmoil within unionism in Northern Ireland, dissent that is viewed with alarm by the Ulster Unionist government, and the legislation is initiated amid the pressure emanating from that dissent. Hard line unionists accuse the government of appeasing nationalists. A more lenient approach by government to some nationalist parades leads to an increase in the flying of the Irish Tricolour. Likewise, the Coronation celebrations lead to the erection of Union Flags, not only in unionist enclaves, but in nationalist areas where disputes erupt and where some Union Flags are taken down and replaced with the Tricolour. Nationalists also organise boycotts of shops which openly celebrate the coronation with the display of the Union Flag, increasing tension and unionist fears. The Act takes over some of the powers of the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922.
Violations of the Act are punishable by a fine of up to £500 or up to five years in prison. The enforcement of the Act on occasion leads to rioting, most notoriously during the UK General Election of 1964 on the lower Falls Road in Belfast.
(Pictured: Coat of Arms of the Parliament of Northern Ireland)
seamus dubhghaill 