Background
Hugh Kennedy (1879–1936) is a distinguished figure in Irish political and legal history, having been both the first Attorney General of the Irish Free State, and later its first Chief Justice. His papers, which are in the custody of his alma mater UCD, offer fascinating insights into the beginnings of the Irish Free State from the perspective of one of its legal architects.
In the course of my research into the history of music at the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle (published as The Choral Foundation of the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle, 1814–1922 by the Boydell Press in 2023), I investigated some correspondence concerning the fate of the Chapel Royal’s music library after the Chapel was closed at the end of 1922. (National Archives of Ireland, TSCH/3/S2129.) I was greatly puzzled to discover that Hugh Kennedy was a key figure in resolving this dispute. In the midst of the upheaval and distress of the Irish Civil War, why would the Attorney General get involved in such a seemingly inconsequential matter? I found the rather fascinating answer to this question among Kennedy’s correspondence in the UCD Archives (P4/501 and 795).
Before Irish independence, the Chapel Royal was a department of the Dublin Castle government, and thus received its funds through the budget allocated for the household of the Lord Lieutenant (viceroy). As a state institution, the Chapel was not technically part of the Church of Ireland, which had been disestablished in 1871 as a result of the Irish Church Act (1869). Following the inception of the Free State and the abolition of the Lord Lieutenancy in December 1922, the clergy and musicians of the Chapel Royal were informed by the Treasury in London that their salaries would no longer be paid and their offices would cease to exist.
The last Dean of the Chapel Royal, Charles O’Hara Mease, had died in May 1922. In the absence of an appointed successor, the services were superintended by the Sub-Dean, Dr Hugh Jackson Lawlor. After the Chapel was closed at the end of December 1922, Lawlor became a tireless advocate on behalf of the musical and spiritual legacy of the Chapel, and campaigned on behalf of the Chapel musicians who had been made redundant. One of these was William Edmond Hopkins, a precociously brilliant musician who had been appointed Organist of the Chapel in 1920, and was just 24 years old when the Chapel closed.
Hopkins had been a boy chorister in the choir of St Patrick’s Cathedral, where Lawlor was Precentor, and so the young Organist had a rather diffident attitude to his former master. After the closure of the Chapel, a dispute arose between the two about the collection of printed and manuscript music that had been used by the Chapel choir, some of which was over a century old. Against Lawlor’s wishes, Hopkins rented a van and took the music books away. When Lawlor was unable to persuade Hopkins to return the books to the Chapel, he made contact with Hugh Kennedy, with whom Lawlor was acquainted through his brother-in-law, Judge Arthur Warren Samuels (1852–1925).
Kennedy wrote to Hopkins and informed him that the Chapel Royal building and all its contents were the property of the Free State, and that he must surrender the music books to the government. On 12th March 1923, Hopkins brought the books to the Department of Finance, where they were deposited in a strong-room. Although it seems odd that an official as high-ranking as Kennedy would interest himself in a relatively trivial matter, his desire to protect this small piece of state patrimony was surely influenced by the memory of the recent destruction of the Public Records Office in the Four Courts. The Chapel Royal music books (most of which survive today in the custody of the Representative Church Body Library in Braemor Park) went on to have an unusually turbulent later life, about which you can read in Chapter 5 of my book!
Hugh Jackson Lawlor’s correspondence with Hugh Kennedy
Four days after Hopkins delivered the Chapel Royal music books to the Department of Finance, Hugh Jackson Lawlor called on Hugh Kennedy to ask him to raise the matter of the Chapel Royal’s future with the Free State government:
UCDA P4/501 Letter from Hugh Jackson Lawlor to Hugh Kennedy, 23 March 1923
(See transcription of this letter below)
Lawlor was a distinguished historian, and was Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Dublin (Trinity College). In the summer of 1923, he read a paper on the history of the Chapel Royal to the Royal Society of Antiquaries in Ireland. This paper had a two-fold purpose: it was both an exercise in recording the Chapel’s history, and an effort to lobby the new government to reopen it. Lawlor’s central argument was that the Chapel Royal was not the viceroy’s chapel, but the king’s chapel, and therefore it should be maintained owing to the status of the Free State as a Dominion of the British Empire. Lawlor had clearly convinced Kennedy of this argument. Some time after receiving Lawlor’s above letter, Kennedy wrote to Sir Francis Greer at the Treasury in London, outlining Lawlor’s position and seeking advice:
UCDA P4/501 Copy letter from Hugh Kennedy to Francis Greer, 18 June, 1923
Greer responded, stating that he was vaguely aware of the matter, but owing to his role at the Treasury could not comment on the situation.
The matter of the Chapel Royal having ever been formally consecrated for worship was a dispute that stretched far back in time. The Chapel seemingly was not consecrated before it opened in 1814: this was seen as unnecessary, since the new building was the successor of the former chapel on the same site, built around 1700 and demolished in 1807. However, as early as 1775, a newspaper report claimed that the old chapel had been built as a ‘Riding-house, and from such was converted into a room for divine worship, without ever having been consecrated as churches usually are or ought to be’. (Freeman’s Journal, 9th May 1775, p. 1.) The question of whether the building had ever been consecrated was important to the Free State government, which was considering possibly using the Chapel for a secular purpose.
During the period in which this debate was ongoing, Kennedy was busily involved in setting up the courts system for the Free State. A proposal was made to use the Chapel Royal as a Law Library. In response to an enquiry from Ernest Blythe, Minister for Local Government, Kennedy stated his opinions on the status of the Chapel and its possible future uses:
UCDA P4/795 Copy reply from Hugh Kennedy to letter from W. Gilligan, Secretary to the Minister of Local Government, 21 July 1923
Points 4 and 5 of the above letter are particularly interesting. Nellie O’Brien’s letter, mentioned in point 4, does not survive, but since she was a Gaelic League activist and Vice-President of the Irish Guild of the Church (which promoted the Irish language in the Church of Ireland), it may be that she suggested using the Chapel for services in the Irish language. In point 5, Kennedy (though himself a Catholic) strongly rejects the idea that the Chapel could be ‘restored’ to use for Catholic worship, a course of action promoted by the false idea that the building dated from before the Reformation. In spite of Kennedy’s convictions on this matter, the Chapel was eventually consecrated for use as a Catholic church in 1943, on the initiative of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid.
Lawlor had hoped to reopen the Chapel Royal for services in the autumn of 1923, and by August of that year he had become impatient. Whilst on holiday, he wrote to Kennedy as follows (see transcription below):
UCDA P4/795 Letter from Hugh Jackson Lawlor to Hugh Kennedy, 4 August 1923
Kennedy’s reply politely indicated to Lawlor that the reopening of the Chapel Royal was unlikely, since it was not a priority for the Free State Government:
UCDA P4/795 Copy letter from Hugh Kennedy to Hugh Jackson Lawlor 10 August, 1923
Realising that the restoration of his position at the Chapel Royal was unlikely, Lawlor made a claim for compensation under the terms of the Irish Church Act, by which officers of the established church were entitled to claim an annuity on the termination of their employment following the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. This provision had not envisaged a situation like that of Lawlor, a clergyman who remained in the service of the state even after disestablishment. It is not recorded whether or not his claim was successful.
Lawlor was elected Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1924, but he continued to hope for the eventual reopening of the Chapel Royal. In 1926, he requested that the government transfer the Chapel Royal music volumes (stored since 1923 in the Department of Finance strongroom) to St Patrick’s, so that they might be accessible ‘in the event of the reopening of the Chapel Royal for religious services’. In 1927, Kennedy’s policy of not using the Chapel for secular purposes was abandoned, and the Chapel repurposed as a temporary courtroom; this decision was criticised in the press as a ‘monstrous proposal…worthy of the Bolshevists’. The Chapel was used as a courtroom until 1931, the year before Kennedy’s project to restore the destroyed Four Courts was completed.
Conclusion
As this evidence shows, Hugh Kennedy played a pivotal role in reaching a fair settlement following the closure of the Chapel Royal by using his political connections as Attorney General. He was motivated partly by his loyalty to his colleague Judge Samuels, partly by his genuine sympathy for Hugh Jackson Lawlor and the other Chapel staff, and partly by his strong sense of fairness and justice. Through studying the correspondence in his surviving personal papers, it is possible to see the subtleties of this situation and understand Kennedy’s motivations and influence.
I am very grateful to UCD Principal Archivist Kate Manning for her invitation to contribute this article, and also for the scans of the archival material, and her kind assistance with my research.
This guest blog was written by Dr David O’Shea, Conservatoire, Technological University Dublin
Transcriptions of handwritten letters:
UCDA P4/501
32 Palmerston Road
Dublin
23 March 1923
Dear Attorney General,
You were kind enough, when I called on you last Friday, to say that you would bring the matter of the Chapel Royal before the ministers. Can you let me know the result? I do not wish to give you trouble about it; but next week will be one in which something might be done towards reaching a settlement.
I am leaving for you a volume of the Chapel library, which should be with the rest of the books.
Yours very truly,
H.J. Lawlor
UCDA P4/795
Slieve Donard Hotel,
Newcastle,
Co. Down
4 August 1923
Dewar Attorney General,
I am sorry it was impossible, for reasons which I of course completely understand, that I should have a conversation with you before I left home. There is nothing for it but to put into writing what I intended to say.
1. Judge Samuels asked me to tell you that he had seen the Governor General, and that he found him in agreement with your view of the position of the Chapel Royal. Mr Curtis (I think that is the name) was also present and was ready to take the matter up. The Judge also mentioned that you had written to Mr. Greer, but that he did not know the result.
2. If there is the slightest hope that the functions of the Chapel Royal may be carried on, it seems to me most important that there should be the usual services therein on and after the first Sunday in October. That is the ordinary day for resuming the services after the Long Vacation—during which the Chapel is closed. But that could not be done without considerable notice. Some papers which have been deposited by the Board of Works, with my permission, would have to be removed, and the Chapel would need to be cleaned.
Believe me,
Yours faithfully,
H.J. Lawlor