Members of White’s are proud that their club is the oldest gentleman’s club in London, founded in 1693. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge are members. Across the Irish Sea the Hibernian Catch Club was already thriving – it was founded circa 1680 – and I never knew of its existence until I was invited by its President to dinner at the Law Society in Dublin.
The vicars choral of St Patrick’s and Christ Church cathedrals formed the club “as a Brotherhood for the cultivation and knowledge of the best Glees, Catches, Madrigals, etc” so now you can guess what a Catch is. In those days it was strictly Protestant but today it is ecumenical; other than that not much has changed. Membership is restricted to one hundred drawn from the professional classes in Dublin and a choir is formed by singers from the two cathedrals. They hold four dinners annually in the Law Society’s Hall. It is a fine building, opened in 1783 as a new home for a charitable school for boys, known as the Blue Coat School. The hall was originally a chapel and has a stained glass window by Evie Hone. The boys stayed until 1968 when the Law Society took over the building.
I went on Tuesday evening just before everything in Ireland closed down to stop the ‘flu spreading. There were fifty-eight members, twelve singers and forty-four guests. There was ample opportunity to fortify oneself before dinner with three different sherries, wines and Guinness. A hand written poem by Seamus Heaney was framed on a wall. He wrote it with a pen the Law Society gave him to thank him for addressing a meeting of the International Bar Association in 2012. At 7.30 we went into dinner – a prolonged affair as there were four courses interspersed with glees, catches, madrigals, etc. All the guests were name-checked by the President and there was a speech by the Guild Vicar of St Lawrence Jewry who, like me, had come from London.
The final speech of the evening is given by a guest. By 11.00 pm the company are merry and prepared to share their opinion of the speech without any embarrassment. I was the speaker and felt like Bertie Wooster preparing to sing Sonny Boy in the East End of London.
“Although I had steeled myself to the ordeal before me and had set out full of the calm, quiet courage which makes men do desperate deeds with careless smiles, I must admit that there was a moment, just after I had entered the Oddfellows’ Hall at Bermondsey East and run an eye over the assembled pleasure-seekers, when it needed all the bull-dog pluck of the Woosters to keep me from calling it a day.” (Jeeves and the Song of Songs published in Very Good, Jeeves!)
The fact that nobody chucked any bread rolls or left over pudding at me was, I believe, entirely due to the foresight of the head waitress who had all such projectiles removed. She was brought up in a township near Grangebellew and had a soft spot for a local man in his hour of need. Actually, the intelligentsia of Dublin received my speech with more appreciation than it deserved. Still I was jolly glad when it was over.
What fun to join such a convivial gathering before everything went on “lockdown.” One had heard that you spoke quite well, but it was clever to enlist the head waitress to assist in clearing the tables of anything other than dulcifying drink, just in case. I have always wondered if the guests, after the various sherries, wines, etc., are ever seized with the spirit and join the official singers in any of the jolly songs? Were you perhaps so moved?
Christopher,
Perhaps you will be so kind as to publish your speech, as you did with same to ‘The Loriners’, in order that we may judge its merits, or otherwise. I would be most interested to learn of the topic you choose to speak on, and am hoping you didn’t ramble off script into the treacherous waters of British & Irish political relations.
Coming from London (replete with Etonian accent), initially I do not doubt you would have been treated with considerable dubiousness, as we proud Irish do not take well to lectures from pesky English interlopers. But as soon as the gathered assembly was aware that you were indeed of the very finest Irish extraction, your presence would be assured by discreet nods & winks. Indeed such gatherings are, I believe, delighted to welcome colourful, extravagant, unfettered individuals such as your good self to inform and delight and provide a suitable counterpoint to the singing, dining and general conviviality.
I am not surprised that you did not know of ‘The Hibernian Catch Club’, as membership is scrupulously controlled and never ever discussed ‘in publicum’. I suspect this post may not remain in the public domain for long as I do not think this ancient & noble organisation (the oldest of its kind in Europe) has ever been so explicitly discussed.