A study of the life and activities of Sir Stephen Edward De Vere of Curragh Chase, 1812-1904

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is on the life of Sir Stephen Edward De Vere. In some ways, he might be viewed as a peripheral figure in nineteenth-century Irish history. Although he did serve as a Member of Parliament for county Limerick in the early 1850s, his political career did not reach the heights of his contemporaries, such as William Monsell, or Thomas Spring Rice. As a literary figure, he was overshadowed by his younger brother Aubrey. However, a study of De Vere’s life and activities does throw light on such diverse and important topics of local and international history as emigration during the Famine, the national school system, the implementation of justice in nineteenth-century Ireland and the public lunatic asylum system. An examination of De Vere’s private and public life provides an insight into how members of the elite considered notions of religious and national identity. It allows for a closer examination of the ways in which some members of the Irish elite, who operated under a sense of national identity which was separate from the English, but still British, negotiated with the British State and with the Irish populace. The late nineteenth-century saw the decline of the elite in Ireland. De Vere’s staunch objections to any form of local governance in Ireland on the basis that it would erode what he felt was the legitimate claim to power of his class, provides the context for a study of how this societal change was witnessed in county Limerick.