Clubs and Societies in Eighteenth-Century Ireland

By Lisa Marie Griffith

This week I have been reading James Kelly & Martyn Powell (ed) Clubs and Societies in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (Four Courts, 2010). The image attached is of the Limerick Hellfire Club and was painted by James Worsdale. I did not know until reading David Ryan’s excellent article on the Dublin Hellfire Club that the painter of this fantastic image also painted both the Dublin and the London Hellfire Clubs earlier.  Although David Ryan says that Worsdale held a ‘limited artistic ability’ I love this painting. Ryan says that Worsdale ‘demonstrated a knack for obtaining lucrative commissions. Over the course of his career his subjects included George II, Princess Louisa and Mary, William, duke of Devonshire, and the duchess of Newcastle.’ The image of the Dublin Hellfire Club, which is held in the National Gallery, is the image used on the cover of Kelly and Powell’s book while the painting of Limerick Hellfire Club (above) has also been used recently for David Fleming’s book, Politics and Provincial People: Sligo and Limerick 1691-1761 (Manchester University Press, 2010). Both paintings are interesting in that they put a face to elite clubs in eighteenth century Ireland but I find this one in particularly because it includes a woman.

Interview: Dr James Kelly, Head of History Department, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra

Interview date: 20 June 2009

What book do you wish you had written?
I do not wish I had written books that I have read by other authors, admirable though many are. However, there are a number of books I have imagined that if time and circumstances had permitted I would like to write – and might yet do so.

What would you do if you were not a historian?
I have no idea. I would like to think I might have been a journalist.

When was the last time you looked at wikipedia?
About a month ago.

What event had the greatest impact on history in Ireland?
It depends on the era of which you speak. In the prehistoric era the emergence of Agriculture; in the historic era the slow but ultimately successful conquest of famine.

What book are you currently reading?
Iain McCalman, The seven ordeals of Count Cagliostros (2003).