The 1798 commemorations go on. A recent visitor to Belfast says he had less than half an hour to do justice to the splendid exhibition which the Ulster Museum will carry on until August 31st. He will be going back for, he says, it is so comprehensive and attractive, with much of it new to him, or presented in a new light. The exhibition guide, a handsome booklet of some 20 pages, illustrates the wide net cast, starting with the "long-standing and bitter rivalry" between Britain and France, old enemies who competed in all parts of the globe for trade and colonies.
Even Captain Cooke comes into it, for his landing at Botany Bay in New South Wales secured the Australian continent for British interests. "Begun in 1788 as a penal colony, within ten years it would receive transported United Irish rebels from Ireland." But soon we are on to the state of Ireland, Tone, the United Irishmen and the whole sweep of the Rising. The richness of the exhibits is striking. They have come from so many sources. And advisers were Professors Thomas Bartlett, Marianne Elliot, and Dr A. T. Q. Stewart. There is one amusing exhibit where you press a button and a male figure reads out to two other figures at a table in a pub, extracts from the United paper The Northern Star.
Two harps symbolise the famous Belfast Harp Festival of July 14th 1792 and Bunting is given his due. The songs he collected and published, said Martha McTier, were "sounds to make Pitt melt for the poor Irish." There is a cautious line indicating that not all the leaders showed the same enthusiasm for the music. A diplomatic reference perhaps to Tone's "The Harpers again. Strum strum and be hanged." Visually, too, this exhibition scores.
Now to Meath where on this Saturday, July 4th, at 11 in the morning there will be held a 1798 Commemoration Service of Reconciliation on Arthur's Hill, Mountainstown. The address is given as Castletown Kirkpatrick, Navan, adjacent to George's Cross Barracks. It's an interdenominational service, with the presence of the Catholic and Church of Ireland Bishops of Meath, with Diocesan Choirs and Silver Band. There will be a homily by the former Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin, Very Rev Victor Griffith.
There is a lecture afterwards on '98 in Meath by Liam Chambers in Mountainstown House. Unknown croppies are buried in Knightstown Bog nearby. Mountainstown House has been the home of the Pollock family since 1796.