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CEREMONIAL JEWELS OWNED by a former Viceroy of Ireland have been sold for some £21,250 (€30,056).
The set consisting of a badge and star – which was estimated to be worth between £8,000 to £12,000 – was auctioned off yesterday at Sotheby’s London.
The jewels bear the insignia of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, a British order of chivalry that was used to reward senior representatives of the monarchy in Ireland.
They are engraved with its Latin motto Quis Separabit? (Who will separate us?).
The set belonged to the organisation’s former Grand Master Lord Houghton, who was Viceroy of Ireland in the 1890s.
Houghton, a prominent member of the Liberal Party, was the unelected head of the Irish Executive, which ruled Ireland until independence in 1922.
The male-only order held ceremonies in St Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle, the seat of British rule in Ireland.
The jewellery was sold to a private collector yesterday as part of the estate of Lord Houghton’s daughter Mary, the Duchess of Roxburghe, who passed away last year at the age of 99.
The jewels were discovered in her bank vault among other family possessions.
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English rulers over an irish nation
Paddy says fu%k off back to your own land
eh they did, in 1922. Get over yourself.
Red thumbs ye bunch of traitors , no wonder the country is in the state it is ,lie down and roll over for your masters ,you bunch of sheep
Berni – why are you calling people traitors?
Bloody Freemasons
Just to put things into perspective. Three old All-Ireland medals sold for €40,000 in Kilkenny last week.
There are no current members of this dormant Order which is the Irish equivalent of the Thistle and Garter Orders (Scotland and England, respectively).
I find it sad that these were sold. The old woman obviously wanted them kept safe. But to sell them off to someone outside the family, its sad, and in years to come they may regret it.
I’ll bet Enda had an eye on those for service and bowing to HM Liz 2 when she was here. Although I think John Bruton probably did enough to get them in the end.
Come out ye black and tans ,and red thumb me like a man
The Order of St Patrick is a dormant IRISH, not British, order of Chivalry from the Kingdom of Ireland. Obviously the only part of the Kingdom of Ireland that remains is NI, but the Queen is still sovereign of that part of Ireland and the order has never been formally disbanded. And is was never used ONLY to reward senior reps of the monarchy in Ireland – it was granted to all sorts of big wigs, normally peers,not civil servants! I’m a republican, but facts are facts.
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