Usually I am bringing you sites of the Civil War and Reconstruction from within the 50 States, but this week I am in Ireland. There are a number of sites I will highlight from here, but first I want to start with the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. I was introduced to it by historian and archeologist Damian Shiels, who is a leader in research into Irish participation in America’s Civil War. The Shelbourne hosted both Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan when they visited British-occupied Ireland in the years after the Civil War.
Grant arrived in Dublin on January 3, 1879. Grant’s “World Tour” had stretched for nearly two years when he came to Ireland, although Grant had not yet come to the conclusion that he would being around the world. Dublin Lord Mayor J. Barrington welcomed Grant to the city. Grant stayed at the Shelbourne, where many dignitaries to the city took residence. It is right across from St. Steven’s Green, a well-landscaped park lined with the houses of the “Protestant Ascendancy.” Grant also visited City Hall where he made a speech in which he said:
“I have been made a citizen of quite a number of towns and cities, but nothing has given me more pleasure than to be made a citizen of the principal city of Ireland. I am by birth a citizen of a country where there are more Irishmen, either native-born or the descendants of Irishmen than there are in all of Ireland.”
While his speech was very positive, many indigenous Irish representatives refused to meet with the former-president. Grant had refused to meet with Fenian representatives when he was president and they did not want to meet with him now that he was a private citizen.
Grant traced his lineage to Protestant roots in the country and so, after a short visit to Dublin, he headed north to Ulster where he visited Derry and Belfast as well as several other cities.
Philip Sheridan was the child of two Irish immigrants. He visited Ireland in 1871 after “observing” the Franco-Prussian War. However, when he was interviewed in Dublin by a reporter from the New York Herald. Sheridan commented on the beauty of the Irish countryside and he was impressed by Belfast as modern city, but he misidentified where his parents were from and did not express himself on issues important to Irish people just twenty years after the Famine. Some in Ireland were also upset when Sheridan would not meet with Fenian representatives who were trying to free Ireland from British rule.
The hotel is at 27 St. Steven’s Green in Dublin. It was founded in 1824.
During our walking tour with Damian Shiels we did stop in a local pub for refreshment.
All color photos taken by Pat Young.
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