In August 1849 the 4th Marquis of Downshire threw a party for the tenants on his Blessington estate. We are indebted to Elizabeth Smith of Baltiboys and her diaries for an account of the preparations and the party high jinks. The action would take place in the town square, the former Ulster Bank, (the old Hotel) the present Credit Union building, (the Market House) the former Downshire House Hotel (the Agent’s House), the old inn, the schoolhouse and all the public houses in the town.
A few days before the Marquess and his Lady Wife made their way from Hillsborough to Blessington. On their approach to the town they were met by a throng of tenants who unhitched the carriage and drew it into town. By this time, of course, the Blessington Mansion had been burned during the terrible Rebellion of 1798. In fact much of the town had been looted and burned except for St. Mary’s Church and a few private houses. Resentment had been smouldering away from the time of Cromwell when the lands of the native Irish were confiscated. The sudden eruption of fury had taken people by surprise. During their stay and that of their entourage they would take up residence in the Agent’s house. The Agent and his family would be obliged to decamp to wherever. The arrival of the Downshires brought a stir to the town and spread some money around. They were especially welcomed by the shopkeepers and business people. While Blessington House was standing it too had brought a measure of prosperity. Employment and trade got a stimulus. Local produce was bought. Expertise and knowhow filtered down to the people. All gone now. Such had been the side effects of the Rebellion.
But life went on !
The Leesons of Russborough did not show up as they attended the festivities associated with the visit of Queen Victoria and Albert to Dublin. Being titled folk they had pride of place at celebrations and were even ushered into the royal presence. (Mrs Smith did not think much of the Leeson title – it had been bought by an upstart brewer, while her own ancient lineage from the Lairds of Rothiemurchus in Scotland counted for naught.)
On 2nd August 1849 Mrs. Smith went into Blessington to see all the cooking going on in the Old Hotel—4 bullocks, 20 sheep, lambs, hams and 5cwt. (255 kg.) of plum pudding, all prepared by an old army mess man at a guinea a day.
On 7th August after the Ball was over she comments in her diary as follows: ‘the Ball went off pretty well. 1,500 tenantry and peasantry dined in the Old Hotel. The five rooms upstairs each contained two tables laid for forty people, the elite of the company. The ground floor similarly arranged was for the second rank. The rest had fourteen tables in the vaults. After supper each room was prepared for dancing, pipers and fluters being plenty. In every public house there was dancing. Outside in the Market Square there was an immense crowd around a huge bonfire. Owing to the teeming rain the uninvited mob tried to force their way into the Hotel, many succeeding. Two gentlemen and two yeomen were stationed at the door to try to keep them out.’
Meanwhile the ‘Selects’ were in the Market House, with dance music provided by Kavanaghs’ Band. The ‘Selects’, of course, were the crème de la crème of West Wicklow society and included the Marquis’ entourage, Mrs. Smith, her husband Henry and their three children, Jane, Anne and young Jack. Lord Sandys (the Marquis’ brother), the Tyntes of Dunlavin, the de Roebecks, the Doctor, the Kings (James King was soon to marry Anne Smith) were others in this select group. ‘The Ball was started with a country dance. The Marquis had chosen Mrs. Smith’s daughter Jane as his partner; Lord Sandys and Mrs. Tynte made another pair; Jack and Lady Alice and so on. For a while they danced to the sedate music of Kavanaghs’ Band. Not for long though as the gentlemen were needed in the Hotel to keep order, to carve the meat and serve the alcohol, of which they served far too much, as long before midnight there was not a sober man in the place’. Poor Fr. Matthew surely turned in his grave. The gloom and suffering of the recent famine had put a serious dent in his Total Abstinence Association. He had come not long previously to Blackditches (Valleymount) where he enrolled thousands in his Association. Blessington had become an almost whiskey–free town, and now look at it.
With the departure of the men Jane, Anne and their partners, after a while went out through the rain to see what was happening in the Hotel. Their report was so amusing that all the Selects decided to join the fun. Even Mrs. Smith and her invalid husband ducked over. With his elbow the Doctor made room for them through the passageway and into the ballroom where the crowd was fearful. There she met Lord Sandys, the Marquis’s brother, who brought them through all the supper rooms. The mountaineers took the two old bodies for the Marquis and Marchioness and cheered them lustily to their great entertainment. Too much to drink everywhere. The passage was one mass of bodies when they got back, and the door being left open for a moment a number of ruffians forced their way in. It was truly alarming.’ Mrs. Smith and the Colonel escaped into a side room as soon as the Priest and John Hornidge had made a clearance. The Marchioness, who had been dancing among all the heat and odours, looking in her white dress like an angel, was finally overcome and had to be carried over to the Agent’s House by John Hornidge and Mr. Wolfe, where she went at once to bed.
P.S. Some years ago I located a piano composition of Messrs. Kavanagh. It is called the Carlow Polka and was, in all likelihood, played in the Market House all those years ago in August 1849. The late Jimmy Craul of Oldcourt was good enough to get one of his musicians to record it for me.
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