From an American perspective, the history of Ireland from the late 1700s criss-crosses the history of the America in quite a few ways. I was unaware of one of those before yesterday.
I took a bit of a detour in my day to get to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin. I went there because the Irish Times had an article last week about a new exhibition of letters sent home from the front by Irish soldiers during WWI. (My obsession continues.) Anyway, the exhibition was a total waste of time.
The only redeeming feature of the exhibition was that right next to it was the Burgoyne Bell. Notice anything about that name? Yup, the Burgoyne Bell was dedicated to General John Burgoyne, who, it must be noted, LOST at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, the "turning point of the Revolution" as the schoolbooks taught us.
Before yesterday I never knew what happened to Burgoyne after he lost that battle and sailed away in ignominy (or so I figured, anyway). Well, apparently it wasn't all that ignominious as he was posted to Ireland as Commander-in-Chief of all British forces here in 1782. Who knew?
And, as Commander-in-Chief Burgoyne was Master of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The people in charge of the hospital obviously took quite a liking to Burgoyne as they dedicated the bell to him, hence its name.
The bell was cast in Dublin and installed in the bell tower in the hospital, but relocated to the basement "due to its great weight." So that's how I found it yesterday, sitting next to the over-sold WWI exhibition. Made the trip in to the Royal Hospital less of a waste than I thought it was initially.
{As a footnote = General Cornwallis, loser at Yorktown, also spent time in Ireland after his American defeat. More on that at a later date.}
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