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(1) Today is the 200th anniversary of a remarkable incident which took place in the newly-opened Kilmainham Courthouse on 30 December 1820. The High Sheriff called a meeting in the building of the freeholders of County Dublin to force them to issue a loyal address to George IV
(2) The King was particularly unpopular at the time, not only because of his extravagance and self-indulgence, but also because of his attempt to divorce his wife, Queen Caroline. Many of those who opposed the King and his government took up the cause of the injured Queen.
(3) Daniel O’Connell saw this meeting as an opportunity to highlight what he saw as the dictatorial and repressive nature of the British government’s administration of Ireland. He led a call for Lord Cloncurry, to chair the meeting.
(4) Cloncurry was a critic of the British rule in Ireland had been imprisoned as a result of his involvement in the United Irishman rebellion of 1798. Another former member of the United Irishmen, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, also played a leading role in disrupting the meeting.
(5) When the High Sheriff lost control of the meeting he ordered armed soldiers to clear the building. Lord Cloncurry had to be forcibly removed and protested shouting ‘This is the Freeholder’s house – built with the Freeholder’s money!’
(6) O'Connell re-assembled the meeting across the road and issued an address to George IV condemning his treatment of the Queen and calling his attention to the ‘multiplied distress and aggravated miseries of your faithful people of Ireland, since the measure of the Union.’
(7)At a public meeting three days later O’Connell said: ‘The voice and the sentiments which went forth at Kilmainham, have thrilled through every heart in the country…’
(8) ‘ … They have spoken, trumpet-tongued, the feelings of independence which beats in every Irish bosom, and I hope they will be re-echoed throughout every part of Ireland!’
(9) To mark the anniversary of this event, Kilmainham Gaol has mounted display featuring a recently conserved portrait of Daniel O’Connell. It is joined by portraits of Lord Cloncurry and Hamilton Rowan lent to the museum by Áras and Uachtaráin and the Office of the President.
