When going through JJ's papers I found that he had kept some signed menus and seating plans of various events attended over the years. Some of these were purely social and convivial events; I record them in chronological sequence.

At the 1911 Lincoln College 'Bump Supper' the menu was signed by JJ's boat-club colleagues, including JL Llewellan whom we have encountered in the political debates, and Frank Apperley, from whom there are subsequent letters in JJ's papers; this identifies the origin of this long-term contact.

On January 13 1917, presumably as a result of his association with the political background to the Convention, he participated in a dinner in the Gresham Hotel organised by the Corinthian Club in honour of Henry E Duke KC MP the Chief Secretary for Ireland. The Corinthian Club was a Southern Unionist Establishment outfit, with people like the Earl of Fingall, Lord Castlemaine and Andrew Jameson among the vice-presidents. There is a seating plan, with JJ adjacent to the high table, in shouting distance of people like the Lord Chief Justice and General Sir Bryan Mahon. There is however nobody in the company whose name I recognise as being of post-1921 significance, except perhaps Lord Killanin.

There was a report in the Irish Times of the next day, headed 'The Irish Situation - Mr Duke's Reflections'. The guests were listed, including JJ. The President of the Corinthians, Sir Charles Cameron, after toasting the King and predicting victory in the current year, welcomed the new Chief Secretary, remarking that the latter's predecessor Gerald Balfour had said that he never knew where united Ireland was until he dined with the Corinthians. He suggested that if Mr Duke could extend the boundaries of unity beyond the Club he would deserve a monument.

Chief Secretary Duke then spoke at some length, but seems to have confined himself to enumerating his predecessors, with a few words about each, including the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Arthur Balfour and others. The basic politics of this meeting seems to have been an attempt to assert the need one way or another for all-Ireland government, within which the current ruling elite would have some chance of survival, with appropriate political adaptation to the Home Rule demand, now fortified by the demand for the Republic. This would explain JJ's presence.

On March 4 1920 there was a 'Public Banquet' organised by the Plunkett Reception Committee. The President was Lord Monteagle, and the vice-presidents included the Earl of Fingall and Joe Devlin MP. The O'Conor Don was the Chairman of the committee. The seating plan has JJ fairly close to the high table, in a fairly central position, though not in easy shouting distance. Medical luminaries like Robert Woods and Dr Rowlette are more remote. The high table includes Canon Hannay, Father Finlay, Sir H Grattan Bellew and the Hon T Spring-rice (later Lord Glenavy). Press representatives from the Glasgow Herald, Daily Chronicle, Manchester Guardian, Westminster Gazette, Belfast Newsletter, Irish News, Birmingham Daily Post, Cork Examiner, Irish Times, Freeman's Journal, Independent and Daily Express are seated remote from the high table.

This event was reported in the Irish Times on March 5, with a selection of the guest list being given, which however did not include JJ, though he was there. Sir Horace Plunkett's speech was extensively reported; the emphasis was again on all-Ireland unity, with a strong attack on the then current partitioned version of the Home Rule Act, and on the presence in Government of the man (Carson) who had threatened the Empire with civil war. We were one nation, and Lloyd George had no right to try to make us two. 'Not more than one fifth of the Irish people, and he believed a great deal less, took the other view... but this Irish minority was championed by a dominant faction in the Coalition Government..'. He complimented the Labour Party for their support of the demands of the Irish Dominion League, and was heartened by Asquith's victory at Paisley on a platform of self-determination for Ireland within the Empire.

A reception was planned to take place on July 4 1922 in connection with the 1922 Summer Meeting of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers of Great Britain and Ireland, and JJ kept his invitation to it, perhaps as a curiosity, with a quasi-political flavour; JJ was beginning to become recognised outside College as an economist to be reckoned with. This event however occurred at the same time as the commencement of the Civil War, with the shelling of the Four Courts. So it could be that the event never actually took place, and JJ kept the invitation as an ironic reminder of the Civil War. I was unable to find any reference to the Builders' Summer Meeting in the Irish Times around that time, but most of the space was taken up with the Civil war events.

On August 5 1925 JJ attended a 'Fleadh i n-Onóir' for the singer John McCormack, under the auspices of Aonac Tailteann. McCormack was regarded as a sort of ambassador at large for the new Free State, and this would seem to have been a prestigious event. It took place in the Great Hall of UCD, now the National Concert Hall. The seating plan has the 'high table' central along the length, with two separated tables in the same line; JJ is at one of these, along with a press contingent. He was seated opposite Denis McCullagh TD. Cosgrave presided. This represents JJ's assumption into the Free State Establishment.

JJ's status in TCD, as reflected in the seating plan for the Scholars' Dinner of May 31 1926, is somewhat more humble; he is about half way down the ladder from high table, mixing with the current crop of scholars; Kenneth Bailey is some way ahead of him, with the scholars of earlier years, who are given high-table proximity status; JL Synge (1916) is among these.

On July 5 1927 JJ attended the Lincoln College Quincentenary Dinner; the seating is by year of graduation, and he encountered some of the people who had signed his 1911 'Bump' menu; this would have been mostly conviviality; he would however have been able to regale them with his then recent Rockefeller Fellowship experience in France, and with the current Free State scene.

On December 11 1928 there was a Term Dinner, at which the high table contingent included Lord Birkenhead (architect of Partition along with Carson), Lord Glenavy, the Minister for Finance (Ernest Blythe?), Lord Iveagh, the US Ambassador and the President of UCD. JJ is seated at about the half-way mark, at the same level as Joly, Curtis, Synge, Thrift, Gatenby. The upper reaches of the satellite tables are populated by Bishops, institutional presidents and other luminaries.

(The foregoing suggests that JJ had 'made the grade' into elite acceptance in the Free State context while being still somewhat of an outsider on his TCD home ground. There is then a long gap in the sequence; I will fill it in if material turns up. RJ Dec 28 2000.)

Right enough there turned up a dinner plan for the Scholars of TCD of the year 1949, which includes the present writer and JJ, the latter being of 1909 vintage. This has no political significance. He did however maneuver me into going for it in 1949; I could have gone for it in 1948. He encouraged me to drop a year, as I was doing the double Mod in maths and science; it seems I was entitled to do year 3 twice, concentrating on maths in one year, and science in the other. This I did. He must have had the scholars dinner in mind. I have filed this with the others, in folder 70. JJ is at the very end of the high table, Godfrey, a contemporary, being at the other end.

On May 11 1960 TCD gave a dinner in honour of Eamonn de Valera to mark the occasion of his becoming President. I don't have a seating plan, but there is a signed menu, carrying the signatures of Eamonn de Valera and Proinnsias Mac Aogán as well as predictable TCD luminaries like AJ McConnell, TS Broderick, Owen Sheehy-Skeffington, TW Moody; the names Alan Lennox-Boyd, Iveagh, Padraig de Brun, and Jane Dowdall (Lord Mayor of Cork) also appear.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 2005