JOURNAL OF THE IRISH LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY

·' THE DECLINE AND FALL OF DONNYBROOK FAIR 13McMahon's officers had had to admit that no drink had been sold in DiIIon' s house or by the DiIIonspersonalIy, and the I:'olice Superintendent had to concede that'DiIIon will succeed in continuing and reviving the fair unless his interest in the place is purchased or alegislative enactment for its abolition is passed. '48DiIIon had defied the authorities by getting licence holders from different parts of the cityto selI theirwares on his field, thereby flying in the face of the law. It proved to be a pyrrhic victory, however. Hecontinued to hold or to organise the fair in. the succeeding years of 1863 to 1866, using different setsof publicans from widely separated parts of the city each year, but police reports recorded dwindlingnumbers In attendance and dwindling entertainments. Average daily attendance feIl from 2,500 in theearly 1860s to a mere few hundred in 1865 and 1866.The symbolic climax to the conflict came in August, 1866. In that year Dillon and Donnybrook Fairvied with CuIlen and the Catholic Church for the support of the masses, resulting in a decided victoryfor the side of moral reform and social control: the foundation stone for the new Church of the SacredHeart, looking across to the old Fair Green, was laid in 1863 and the official opening for the completededifice was set for the traditional Walking Sunday in August, 1866, the opening day of DonnybrookFair. Thousands poured into the village on that Sunday of 1866. The church opening ceremony wasto be conducted by Paul CuIlen and special lustre was conferred on the occasion by virtue of the factthat he had become a Cardinal a mere eight weeks before this, the first such in Irish history. The localparish priest, Very Rev. Dean A. O'ConneIl, had intended the church not just as a means of providingmuch needed extra space but as an expiatory monument for the vices and wickedness of Donnybrook. Fair. On this point the press agreed with him, seeing it as 'a great landmark which will point out wherevice and immorality were vanquished' .49 The event proved one of the most memorable and impressiveof public occasions in the life of Dublin and of Ireland in the nineteenth century.On the very same day DilIon opened his field as usual in order to commence the annual festivitiesof Donnybrook Fair. This time he could only produce one licence holder willing to seIl drink in the field.Divisional Superintendent Daniel 0 'Donovan reported that a good number of gamblers were amongstthe crowds who came to attend the rival events, but, he added, their numbers were lessened 'by theappearance of some constables ... who interfered as far as possible to intimidate them'. He admittedthat this intimidation had good effect for 'their numbers grew less each day' and that the attempt torevive the old fair 'was a failure in toto this year'. It was his opinion that 'the last attempt had beenmade'. In this he was not quite correct: whereas by his own admission Joseph Dillon had finaIly givenup the attempt,50 two years later his daughter Eliza made one last effort: but after a few days the original'120 persons of the lowest class' who visited the field had fallen to a mere handful of 'horse dealers andragged idlers who are often to be seen lolling about corners'. In the triumphant words ofInspector PeterFitzpatrick of the new Donnybrook Police Station, 'thus ended the great failure of the attempt to reviveDonnybrook Fair'. He had his own explanation for the failure:'1 attribute the fall of Donnybrook Fair to the absence of music in the public houses of Donnybrook andthe neighbouring locality as there was not a sound of music to be heard in any public house in the wholesubdivision; no doubt they all dreaded the refusal of their licences if they went against the policearrangements which were carried out effectively.'slDonnybrook Fair finally ended in 1868, thirteen years after its abolition had been prematurelyannounced. The police were not slow to take credi t for its decline and fall. They had harried the hackneymen, thwarted the publicans, silenced the music and intimidated the gamblers. Their Commissionershad publicly given written and financial suppport to this particular cause of moral reform and socialcontrol. They did this at a time when the DMP force was run with a ruthless regimen and when itsaverage police constable was so badly paid that protest on their conditions appeared in print in the very