Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-9406-6777

Document Type

Doctoral Thesis

Disciplines

Culinary Arts, Food and Beverage, Food Culture, Gastronomy, *Irish Food Studies, Food History

Publication Details

Irish Diplomatic Dining, 1922-1963. Submitted by Elaine Mahon to School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology Technological University Dublin for the Award of PhD. 2019.

doi:10.21427/k2hj-w534

Abstract

The study of food and power has primarily focused on absolutist courts of the eighteenth century amidst powerful monarchs and a wealthy court life yet research into the power structures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shows that dining remained an important feature in political and state life.

This dissertation is a study of Irish diplomatic dining between 1922 and 1963 and aims to establish how the Irish government entertained important guests, how diplomatic protocol was drawn up, and to identify whether there was anything distinctly Irish in terms of the tableware, linen, and silver used on the state table and if this was transmitted to the legations abroad. The chronological scope is based on two significant moments in twentieth century Irish history, the emergence of the Irish Free State in December 1922 and the visit of the President of the United States in 1963, considered at that date to be the most significant visit by a distinguished visitor since the 1932 Eucharistic Congress.

It quickly became clear that between 1922 and 1931, the Irish Free State government led by President William T. Cosgrave, undertook a broad range of high level hospitality, entertaining very important persons (VIPs) from the four corners of the globe. Between 1932 and 1940, the Fianna Fáil government led by Éamon de Valera built on the foundations of state hospitality put in place by the Cumann na nGaedheal administration but also implemented significant changes in official entertaining. In a period which was marked by an economic war with Britain, the Irish government maintained a level of state hospitality commensurate with the United States and France and consisting of state receptions, banquets, garden parties and lunches.

External Affairs’ move to Iveagh House in 1941 established the department’s new headquarters as the main state venue for official entertainment. Although there was a reduction in state hospitality following the outbreak of the Second World War and despite the introduction of rationing which remained in place until 1951, distinguished guests, foreign envoys and conference attendees continued to be entertained at Iveagh House.

By the time the state visits of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, and the United States President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, took place in 1961 and 1963 respectively, the Department of External Affairs had forty years of experience in official hospitality. A wealth of established ceremonial procedures along with the experience in diplomatic protocol gained over the course of that time, ensured that both visits were a success. Significantly, as highlighted by Bord Fáilte, the Irish government was seen by the international community to be capable of welcoming distinguished visitors of the highest rank with all of the attendant ceremonial pomp and display such events required. From uncertain beginnings where it was described as a ‘Ministry for finding a job for somebody’, the Department of External Affairs had become the strategic centre of Irish state hospitality with all of the necessary procedures and protocols in place to ensure the successful organisation of the entire suite of internationally accepted state entertainment which could be offered by the Irish government.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/k2hj-w534

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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