| Irish Crown Jewels |
Article Index for Irish |
Website Links For Irish |
Information About ™Irish Crown Jewels |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT IRISH CROWN JEWELS | |
| crowns | |
| crown jewels | |
| history of ireland | |
| individual thefts | |
| british monarchy | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
|
HISTORY King George III instituted the Order of St Patrick in 1783. Among the insignia of a knight were a star and a badge; in the royal set of the insignia these were composed of Rubies , Emerald s and Brazil ian Diamond s. In 1903, the jewels were transferred to a safe, which was to be placed in the newly constructed strongroom. The new safe was too large for the doorway to the strongroom, and Arthur Vicars , the Officer of Arms of Dublin Castle, instead stored the jewels in his office. Seven latch keys to the door of the Office of Arms were held by Vicars and his staff, and two keys to the safe containing the insignia were both in the custody of Vicars. The jewels were discovered missing on 6 July 1907 , four days before the state visit of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra . The theft is reported to have angered the King (who allegedly exclaimed "I want my jewels!") but the visit went ahead. Vicars refused to resign his position, and similarly refused to appear at a Viceregal Commission into the theft (the commission did not possess powers to for a centennial inquiry into the crime. It is believed that the Irish Crown Jewels have never been recovered. It has been rumoured that in 1927 they were offered for sale to the Irish Free State for £5,000 and that they were bought back on then prime minister W.T. Cosgrave 's orders, with the instructions that the fact that the Irish state owned them was not to be revealed, for fear of criticism from republicans and because of the tight budgetary situation in the Irish Free State . However an extensive search in the Irish National Archives has failed to find any evidence that they were bought or if so, what happened to them. (The Irish state until the 1940s did have some of the Russian Crown Jewels which were used as collateral for a loan given to the Russian Republic by the Irish Republic about 1920. It is possible the rumour about the state possessing the Irish Crown Jewels grew because it was known that ''some'' crown jewels were stored in Government Buildings in Dublin, people naturally presuming that they must be the ''Irish'' crown jewels.) (2) FOOTNOTES # Rumours of a homosexual ring in Dublin Castle were linked to claims about the theft. It was variously rumoured that Shackleton and/or Vicars were being blackmailed on account of their orientation, they or others in the castle facilitating the theft to pay off the blackmailers or to "expose" Vicars' rumoured sex life through an inquiry into the theft. The claim of homosexual rings in Dublin Castle was nothing new. One nationalist MP during the Lord Lieutenancy of the 5th Earl Spencer in the 1880s famously nicknamed the Lord Lieutenant's Dublin Castle administration ''Sodom and Begorrah''. # The new Russian Republic, which was seriously low on funds, apparently sought the loan from the UDI Irish Republic , whose finance minister, Michael Collins , had become internationally famous for his fundraising for the unofficial Irish state. The jewels were placed in a safe in Government Buildings and promptly forgotten about, though the existence of some crown jewels somewhere was rumoured. They were rediscovered in the 1940s by accident and sent to Moscow . REFERENCES ADDITIONAL READING
EXTERNAL LINKS |