Murder in Monte Carlo

by Michael Sheridan

  This was a severe financial blow to the merchants of the city including the Goolds.

  Cork City was under military governance from 1644-1656 when Cromwell granted a municipal charter to the Protestants of Cork City. Further orders expelling Catholics were made in 1651 and 1656. The municipal government of the city was to remain firmly in Protestant hands until the return of the Corporation in the 1840s, apart from a brief period during the reign of Catholic James II (1685-1690) when the Old English rallied to the cause of the Jacobites and regained control of the city, which was then besieged and taken by Williamite forces in September 1690. Some of the Old English had properties in Cork returned after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, but the dominance of the City by the Old English merchant elite, which had lasted for centuries, was at an end.

  Despite the political turbulence, the economic fortunes of Cork began to improve in the first half of the 17th century after two centuries of relative decline.

  Item 7 :

  Two items [in the Vanderplas Cork Deeds, 1598, 1610-1677, 1694] relate to debts owed by James Gould, gentleman, to William Penn (1644-1718), founder of the State Of Pennsylvania, who was sent to Ireland in 1667 by his father Admiral Sir William Penn to manage extensive estates in Cork.

  Item 8 :

  A number of items from the 1660’s and 1670’s appear to relate to the recovery of property by Catholic families following the restoration of the monarchy with the accession of Charles II in 1660 including a decree of innocency for Mary and Anstance Goold, relating to the 1641 estate of their father Alderman Thomas Gould and signed by court commissioners.

  Item 9 :

  In La Rochelle, in 1705, James Nagle of Annakissy, County Cork (b. January 21, 1679, d. March 26, 1773) married Elisabeth Goold, daughter of Alderman Stephen Goold of Cork and his wife Helen. Mrs Helen Goold in a will dated 1725 and proved on November 6th, 1746 left her son-in law (J. Nagle) 14,600 livres tournois. She had a house in Paris.

  James Nagle gave a grand ball in 1768 at Annakissy which had to be stopped in the middle on the news of the death of his grandniece Marion, wife of Charles Howard (afterwards 11th Duke Of Norfolk).

  Item 10:

  Amongst those who were taken at sea in 1746, volunteering to aid the cause of Prince Charles-Edward, was Captain Gould, Ultonia Regiment, Spanish service.

  Item 11:

  In the Church of St Giles at Bruges is a burial place of William Goold “of ancient and venerable lineage in Cork” as inscribed upon a white marble flag inserted in the flag of the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin. There were strong mercantile links between Cork and Bruges in the 18th century.

  Item 12:

  Goolds, of Old Court, Co. Cork, Ireland

  The Goold baronetcy of Old Court in Cork is a title in the baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on August 8th 1801 for Francis Goold with remainder to his heirs, male, in recognition of his father who gave valuable service to the government of King George III.

  Coat of Arms of the Goold Family

  Arms: azure on a fess or, between five goldfinches, three in chief, and two in base, proper, three mullets, gules.

  Crest: a demi-lion, rampant, or.

  Motto: Deus mihi providebit.

  Seat: Old Court, Co Cork.

  Sir Francis’ father George Goold of Old Court, Co Cork, esq, married Mary-Ann, eldest daughter of James Galway, esq (a lineal descendent from Sir Jeffrey Galway, bart,) and had the following issue:

  1. Sir Francis, 1st bart.

  2. Henry-Michael married 27th May 1778, Catherine daughter of Donatt O’Callaghan of Kilgoorey, Co Clare, and had the following issue:

  1) Sir George, 2nd bart, (1778-1870).

  2) Henry.

  3) Marcella.

  4) Mary.

  3. William.

  4. George.

  5. Anne m. John Dunellan of Nutgrove, esq, cousin to the Countess of Fingal.

  6. Margaret.

  Sir George Goold, 2nd bart, succeeded his uncle Sir Francis who died unmarried in 1818; married 13th May 1802 Lady Charlotte Browne, only child of Valentine, Earl of Kenmare, by the Hon. Charlotte Dillon, 3d daughter of Henry, 11th Viscount Dillon; and had the following issue:

  1. Sir Henry-Valentine, 3rd bart, b. 7th July 1803, died 8th June 1893 unmarried.

  2. George Ignatius, b. 7th Sept 1805, d. 6th Nov 1879.

  3. Edward, in the service of the Emperor of Austria.

  4. William-Bedingfield.

  5. Charlotte.

  6. Ellen-Frances.

  7. Georgina.

  8. Marcella.

  9. Frances.

  George Ignatius Goold married Clara Smith, daughter of Major-General James Webber Smith on 3rd November 1840. Clara died 9th March 1870. They had the following issue:

  1. Frances Mary Goold.

  2. Frederick Edward Michael Goold.

  3. Ernest.

  4. William.

  5. George Charles b. 1847.

  6. Sir James Stephen Goold 4th Bt b. 2nd Oct 1848.

  7. Vere Thomas St Leger Goold b. 2nd October 1853.

  Sir James Stephen Goold, 4th baronet, succeeded his uncle Henry-Valentine who died unmarried in 1893.

  Item 13:

  George Ignatius Goold, Resident Magistrate of Waterford, and the Fenian Movement.

  There was strong suspicion of arms being illegally imported through the port of Waterford. The Fenian rebels had started an uprising in early March 1867 in Tallaght, Co Dublin. Albeit with disastrous results for themselves. The County Dublin Rising was followed by a number of smaller outbreaks in the Munster area. In order to cope with the disorder in Munster, the Government set up army ‘flying columns’ to scout the country for rebels. These flying columns were to be under the command of a resident magistrate. These groups included a Waterford ‘flying column’.

  In such a situation panic and rumour abounded. The Dublin Metropolitan Police received a report on March 8th warning that a rising involving 1,800 men was about to take place in Waterford. The insurgents were said to concentrate their attacks on the police. Contact with the army was to be avoided (since many soldiers were said to be secretly sworn members of the Fenian Brotherhood).

  The memorandum regarding arms smuggling was the work of George Ignatius Goold, resident magistrate of Waterford. Goold was the second son of Sir George Goold 2nd Bt of Old Court, County Cork by his wife Lady Charlotte Browne, daughter of the 1st Earl Of Kenmare. His son James Stephen was to become 4th baronet in 1893. His youngest child Vere St Leger Goold was born in 1853. George Goold, who was born on September 7th 1805, held the post of resident magistrate from 1840-1878.

  During the eventful month of March 1867, Goold had already been in correspondence with the government regarding the Fenian movement on two occasions. He had forwarded a newspaper cutting of a letter from the Fenian chief Thomas Kelly. This cutting had been smuggled into a prisoner in Waterford gaol, Capt Burke. Also he had countered a charge by a Mr Spencer that spirit licences had been granted in Waterford to two known Fenians.

  In this latter memorandum he had made some interesting observations regarding the composition of the magistracy in Ireland. The Irish Government in the persons of Lord Naas, Chief Secretary and his under secretary Sir Thomas Lancome swiftly passed Goold’s complaint concerning arm imports to the chairman of the Board Of Customs in London, Sir Thomas Freemantle, early in April.

  County Of Waterford

  March 28th, 1867

  The Under Secretary,

  Dublin Castle

  I would wish to call your attention to the question of the importation of arms in aid of the Fenian movement into the ports of this country and to the difficulty that now exists of exercising any effectual supervision over it.

  I presume that few believe we have seen the end of that movement. I would go further and say I am firmly of the opinion that we have not seen the real beginning and that, notwithstanding the late spurt and its failure, the agents are working actively and silently, to pr
epare for a renewal of the attempt when they think circumstances are more favourable to them.

  Among those preparations, I have reason to think the importation of arms occupies a prominent place and that, probably, they are passing under our eyes along the quays of Waterford, continually. The large iron-bound cases of hardware, large bales of soft goods, and the like, may convey any quantities of them, without detection.

  I have spoken to the Custom officers, but they have neither a staff nor authority to intervene effectually. Their instructions are to follow anything they may suspect to its destination, but as this is principally a port of transit from Glasgow and Liverpool to the interior, this instruction is practically nugatory.

  Again they cannot (will not at their own peril even if they had force or staff to do it) stop and examine the most likely packages, which could occupy a considerable time, and leave them liable to the consequences, in the extent of a failure, for the delay and injury to the goods.

  The police, are of course in the same position so that unless on positive and sworn information, the smuggling of arms cam continue under our very noses.

  It is not for me to suggest a remedy, but I cannot help calling attention to the subject, because I think it of much importance, and it is forced upon my notice, from more quarters than one, in hope that some greater powers may be devised which will, to some extent, meet the requirements of the time.

  George I. Goold

  Sir Thomas Freemantle replied from the Custom House in Dublin on 9th April, 1867, and noted that within a package two gun cases and ammunition, a machine for making cartridges and some other gun furniture was discovered in a shipment to Waterford and handed over to the local constabulary.

  Freemantle dispatched Frederick Trevor, the Collector of Customs at Dublin, to Waterford in order that he might confer with the collector there on the subject. Trevor also included the Port of Cork on his itinerary. A copy of his report was duly forwarded to Lord Naas and remains among his papers.

  In June 1867 there was an unsuccessful Fenian landing on the Waterford coast, at Ballinagoul near Helvic.

  When Lacassagne and his colleagues had examined these documents at length, with growing wonder, they turned to another sheaf even more pertinent to their present investigation.

  Vere St Leger Goold – Tennis Champion

  In November 1877, a group of tennis enthusiasts decided to establish the Dublin Lawn Tennis Club. The plan was to have 30 members who would pay a subscription of £3 a year. The committee decided at the subsequent gathering later in the same month to lease ground in Upper Pembroke Street for £25 a year over a ten-year period. At the next meeting on December 6th a member of the committee Arnold Graves proposed a new name “Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club” which was adopted.

  The group was composed of Anglo-Irish stock, Protestant, all of the Dublin professional classes. It would, as newspapers revealed, maintain close connections with the British Army and a special effort would be made to bring officers into the fold. In December 1879 a motion was passed admitting army officers at a subscription of £1 a year. At tournament, bands from the Welsh Regiment or the King’s Own Regiment entertained the spectators during breaks in the play.

  Tennis it was made quite clear was a sporting pursuit of the privileged classes: the gentry, professions and in the case of one of the leading lights that would emerge on the court, the old aristocracy.

  At this time there was a tennis boom in Britain and Ireland. The All England club had been founded in 1877 and clubs began to proliferate throughout the isles. Tennis was the ideal middle-to-upper-class game, expensive to maintain, which meant it kept out the ordinary man and woman on the street, but not so expensive as to be available only to the very rich. Each year the cream of English players would come over to compete in Fitzwilliam Week, usually held in early June.

  Although the year was marked by a severe economic depression in the country, caused by bad harvests, foreign agricultural competition and the drying up of the usual seasonal employment in Britain, as in all such events certain privileged sections of society appeared unaffected by the consequences.

  On March 11th 1879, a note was published in sporting newspaper, The Field:

  It is proposed to hold the Championship of Ireland open to all comers under the auspices of The Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club in Dublin on Monday the 2nd of June and the following days.

  At the same time that this then-expensive sport was gaining popularity, the finances of the capital Dublin were in disarray. In May the Municipal Boundaries Commission, of whom a highly accomplished tennis player Vere Goold was a secretary, was conducting an inquiry into the question of the annexation of the outlying townships to the municipality of Dublin. On behalf of the Rathmines Commissioners, Mr Walker QC sought to show that the population of the district, now under this government of that body would have little if nothing to gain, and a great deal to lose by incorporation with the city.

  With the character borne by the present Corporation of Dublin, it was not difficult for Mr Walker to make out a plausible case. Rathmines may not be perfection; but what is Dublin? Is it not notorious that its death rate is among the highest in Europe; that its streets are ill-kept, that its finances are mismanaged; that the members of the Corporation spend their time in speech making, to the neglect of public business and that the Municipal Council has been reported upon with extreme severity by Select Parliamentary Committee?

  After many years and protracted enquires, the suburbs would be annexed but the proceedings underlined the financial shortcomings of the administration of the city and the dire poverty that existed in the heart of Dublin. As the counsel observed, the highest death rate in Europe, no doubt largely among the poorly nourished inhabitants of the tenements. Such matters were of little concern to the thriving tennis club or its well-heeled members.

  The tennis club committee had applied to the Commissioners of the nearby Fitzwilliam Square and the grounds were to be leased for a week to hold the inaugural championships there.

  The square was a magnificent example of Dublin Georgian architecture. Surrounded by beautiful red-bricked houses which could not have provided a more sumptuous backdrop, the smaller windows at the top of the houses were calculated correctly to give an impression of even greater height.

  The first All Ireland Open championship was played in the square on Wednesday 4th June, 1879. Rain had delayed the beginning of the tournament and the committee had to extend it to the following Tuesday. There was a Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ singles and men’s doubles and doubles for a lady and gentleman as partners.

  A display advertisement in the Irish Times two days before the start of the competition announced the event. The gentlemen’s doubles admission was one shilling, combined with the ladies’ doubles it was two shillings and on the final day, the Friday, gentleman’s singles, one shilling again. Three-day tickets were two shillings and sixpence and tickets could be obtained through a number of retail outlets including the famous Elverys shops in Dawson St and Sackville Street.

  The ladies’ singles was the first competition of its kind to be played anywhere. It would be five years before the All England Club would include a ladies’ championship. The ladies’ matches were played in the club premises, admission by members’ vouchers only. Their comely ankles, the only parts of their legs exposed were not, apparently, suitable for the gaze of the marketplace.

  From the start there was a sparkling social life surrounding the competition, more redolent of race meetings. During the season, the debutantes came to Dublin to be presented to the Viceroy, the King’s representative. They stayed in the Shelbourne Hotel or in the Georgian mansions in Fitzwilliam and Merrion squares. The Viceroy and Lady Aberdeen were to be frequent visitors to the Fitzwilliam Tournament.

  A number of small reports in the Irish Times gave notice of the upcoming All Ireland championship and one correspondent noted in advance of the superseding by tennis of the hitherto hugely popular game of croquet. “Cro
quet and its great and successful rival lawn tennis are to be seen on the lawn, the former seldom and the latter very frequently – so often as to prove inconsiderably that the mallet and ball are altogether out of favour. Not long ago a very enjoyable lawn tennis fete was brought off with much pleasantness and success at the Earlsfort Terrace rink.”

  A further report which appeared in the newspaper on Thursday, June 5th, affirmed this view:

  “The contest for the Championship Lawn Tennis in this country has obtained a considerable degree of popularity during the comparatively short time that has elapsed since its introduction among our summer sports and to the once universally favourite game of croquet it has established, at least for the present, a formidable rivalship.

  Possessing though, in a different form, all the attractions of the latter pastime, the more animated exercise it demands and the consequently closer continuous attention that it requires, constitute in the consideration of many one of its direct charms, whilst to the unquestionable advantage it has in not rendering necessary that absence of all inequality in the ground, so desirable in croquet, may perhaps be ascribed some of the success with which it has been attended.

  Both as a means of gentle exercise, and in its more social character, it has become extremely fashionable; and that is probably in some measure owing to the fact that, while it affords a pleasing open air amusement, combined with physical exertion sufficiently gentle for the participation of ladies, it can be conducted with all the rapidity and vigour that can satisfy the most enthusiastic player of the rougher sex.

  Were a proof of the popularity it enjoys wanting, the large and fashionable assemblage yesterday present in the green of Fitzwilliam Square, when the contest commenced for the Lawn Tennis Championship Of Ireland, would have amply supplied it to the most sceptical mind. Around the whole line that surrounds the greensward upon which the play took place, there was a dense unbroken circle of persons, or standing throughout the whole of the games, the utmost interest evinced by the spectators.