In March 1689 King James landed at Kinsale, the first English monarch to come to Ireland since Richard II. His entry into Dublin on Palm Sunday, 24 March was an impressive public occasion. The streets were freshly gravelled, hangings and flowers decorated every window, musicians played and soldiers lined the procession. At the city boundary James was nlet by the new Lord Mayor, Sir Michael Creagh (whose Protestant faith was an indication of the King's tolerance), and other dignitaries who presented him with the freedom of the city while pipes played 'The King Enjoys his own Again'. Celebrations continued well into the night, 'the Papists shouting, the soldiers' muskets discharging, the bells ringing, and bonfires in all parts of the town'. James was seen to be in tears.

Soon things began to go sour. The Patriot Parliament, called from March to June 1689, proved a disappointment to the Catholic Irish, since although it repealed the Act of Settlement, the yardstick of confiscation was considered not to be religion, but loyalty to the King. Although James's advocacy of religious tolerance was centuries ahead of his time, Protestants became increasingly uneasy as they saw Mass celebrated in Christ Church, and Trinity transferred into a barracks and a prison for Protestants. Tyrconnell took over the Blew Coat School and 'turned out all the poor Blew boys... and sent their beds to the great hospital at Kilmainham for the use of wounded soldiers'. Later it was the turn of the pensioners, who were evicted from the Hospital with forty shillings each to make way for a garrison.

Then there was brass money for which James was long remembered. This was not altogether fair since brass money which numismatists call gun money - was designed as a temporary expedient, and in any case the financial system had been chaotic for a long time. There were no banks until around 1675 when Hoare's Bank was started in Cork and similar institutions gradually developed in Dublin. Meanwhile banking was in the hands of brokers who were usually goldsmiths. They concentrated in the parish of St Werburgh, where they received deposits and issued their own notes which might be used locally. Between 1650 and 1679 traders throughout Ireland similarly issued their own tokens which were exchangeable for goods. Designs on Dublin tokens included a winged beast issued by Roger Bold of Skinners' Row, Arthur Harvey of High Street's three rabbits, the three cocks and three doves associated with Henry Aston, while Jacob Hudson's tokens bore the inscription 'Come'. After 1679, when heavy-weight copper halfpence were minted officially in England, the distribution of trade tokens ceased.

Since there was no mint, the official coinage was irregular. Foreign coins, both gold and silver, counterfeit and genuine, were in circulation. Pistoles, rix dollars, ducatoons, French Louis, Mexican pieces of eight and so forth were all viable pieces of money, their value determined by weight, a practice that made business slow. If money had to be transferred from one part of the country to another, it either had to be transported under guard or issued by bills of exchange and letters of credit guaranteed by rich men.

James's mints in Cork and at Capel Street in Dublin were the first in Ireland. The debased coinage they produced further muddled the money system. They melted down old cannons, broken bells and pots and pans, turning them into coins. Tin and pewter were used when brass bells became scarce. Shopkeepers who refused money from the Capel Street mint were threatened with hanging. After brass money, the coinage continued to be in disarray and Wood's halfpence did nothing to help. Throughout the eighteenth century there was a constant shortage of change. Publicans refused to serve strangers unless they could pay in small coins. The handling of large sums of money went on being a problem. When, during the 1750s, Mrs Bayly wanted to invest £200 in debentures at Dublin Castle, she had to take a sedan. 'Walked home, but the money was so heavy I could not walk going.'

part 2

From the Appletree Press title: A Little History of Ireland, click here for more information or here to buy the book from Amazon. Also from Appletree: A Short History of Ireland, available from Amazon.com. Click here for more information.