(fabrykowany przez wiele zrodel i wieloraka osobowosc tu, faszyste
ironiste)

JOHN KELLS INGRAM (1823-1907)


Trinity Economic Paper Series
Paper No. 99/9


Sean D. Barrett,
FTCD,
Department of Economics,
Trinity College,
Dublin.


Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this paper are the author’s and do not
necessarily
reflect the views of the Department of Economics, Trinity College,
Dublin.

Chancellor,Provost, New Fellows and Scholars, Ladies and Gentlemen;

1



On another glorious Trinity Monday we celebrate John Kells Ingram;
author of a famous patriotic ballad, one of the finest College
officers in the
last century and an internationally renowned scholar.

 The patriotic writings of Ingram are the main reason for his fame
throughout Ireland. The Memory of the Dead was hugely influential
among
Irish nationalists. In this the bicentenary year of 1798 the power of
Ingram's
poem is apparent.

The Memory of the Dead

 Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?
Who blushes at the name?
When cowards mock the patriot's fate
Who hangs his head for shame?
He's all a knave, or half a slave,
Who slights his country thus;
But a true man, like you, man,
Will fill your glass with us.


 We drink the memory of the brave,
The faithful and the few:
Some lie far off beyond the wave,
Some sleep in Ireland, too;
All,all are gone; but still lives on
The fame of those who died;
All true men, like you, men,
Remember them with pride.

Some on the shores of distant lands
Their weary hearts have laid,
And by the stranger's heedless hands
Their lonely graves were made;
But, though their clay be far away
Beyond the Atlantic foam,
In true men, like you, men,
Their spirit's still at home.

The dust of some is Irish earth,
Among their own they rest,
And the same land that gave them birth

 Has caught them to her breast;
And we will pray that from their clay

2



 Full many a race may start
Of true men, like you, men,

 To act as brave a part.

They rose in dark and evil days
To right their native land;
They kindled here a living blaze

 That nothing shall withstand.
Alas! that Might can vanquish Right


They fell and passed away;
But true men, like you men,

 Are plenty here today.

Then here's their memory-may it be

 For us a guiding light,
To cheer our strife for liberty,

 And teach us to unite-
Through good and ill, be Ireland's still,

 Though sad as theirs your fate,
And true men be you, men,

 Like those of Ninety-Eight.

 Ingram wrote the Memory of the Dead in one night in his rooms on
this
site in the old House 30 in March 1843. He was in the company of the
O'Regan brothers,John and Thomas, scholars who hailed from Ennis, and
George Shaw, a Fellow of 1848. After much talk about 1798 he withdrew
to
his bedroom, leaving his friends in the outer room. He spent the
night
writing the poem and with diffidence showed it to Shaw on the next
day.
That afternoon he dropped the poem into the letterbox of The Nation
newspaper and it was published in the edition of April 1, 1843. In the
Irish
Times we read that "by virtue of that piece of ballad poetry the name
of John
Kells Ingram lives today upon the lips and in the hearts of
Irishmen." ( May
2, l907). Litton Falkiner in his tribute to Ingram (1908;108) stated
that " this
noble requiem of the men of '98 at once took its place as the anthem
of their
political successors and for more than sixty years this youthful burst
of
enthusiasm has made the name of Ingram familiar to thousands of his
fellow-
countrymen to whom the graver effects of his maturer pen could
scarcely
have made direct appeal." Falkiner was a Unionist parliamentary
candidate
in South Armagh(McDowell,1997;24) and his description of the poem as
"
this noble requiem of the men of '98" shows the affection in which
Ingram
was held by both nationalists and unionists- a vital role for TCD in
Irish
public life.

 The air of The Memory of the Dead was composed by John Edward
Piggot. a law student from Kilworth, Co. Cork who was a senior
sophister in
1843. Piggot was a leading member of the Hist, and later, of the
Young
Ireland inner council and a judge in India. The returned to Ireland in
1870

3



and lived at 15 Merrion Square but died in the following year. The
Memory
of the Dead was also sung to the air of Auld Lang Syne.

 It was the ideals of 1798 which attracted Ingram rather than
subsequent
interpretations along Orange and Green lines. The guests in Ingram's
rooms
that night could hardly be described as mainstream Irish nationalists.
The
O'Regans had distinguished careers in the Church of Ireland, according
to
Falkiner, while in the words of Webb and McDowell " Shaw was to
become
something of a maverick among the Fellows," as well as Junior Dean.
He
became Professor of Physics at Queens College Cork and on his return
to
Dublin was " a man-about-town" and "friend of theatrical celebrities.
"Overflowing with tireless, if not clearly focussed energy, he was
never at a
loss for an anecdote, wit and banter, .....He contributed little,
perhaps, to the
education of Dublin, but a good deal to its
entertainment." (1982,298).

 There were two sources of inspiration for The Memory of the Dead-
Ingram's participation in the College Historical Society and his
radical
background. Ingram supported William Hancock in his negotiations with
Provost Sadlier which secured the return of the Hist as an intern
society in
College 1843. It had been an extern society since 1821. John Dillon,
Thomas
Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy were also active members of the Hist
and
founders of the Young Ireland movement. They had launched the Nation
newspaper in October 1842 six months before it published The Memory
of
the Dead.

 The 1798 tradition in the Hist was strong. A visitation by the Vice
Chancellor, Lord Clare,after the rising, resulted in the expulsion of
nineteen
students, eight of whom, including Robert Emmet, were members of the
Hist.
Wolf Tone was a member as was his friend Whitley Stokes, whose
fellowship was suspended for three years following the visitation.

 Isaac Butt was auditor of the Hist in 1834. A year earlier he
emphasised
the role of the Society in producing orators who would retrieve
Ireland's past
glories by serving the country. "from this Society great things will
be
produced; we will draw around us the youthful talent of our country,
and
train them in that power which may enable them to benefit her. The
glory of
the days gone shall return with more than pristine splendour.....I do
believe
that the time will come, when faction shall flee away and dissension
shall be
forgotten; when Ireland's orators and Ireland's statesmen shall seek
only their
country's good; when law shall be respected and yet liberty
maintained."
(Budd and Hinds;59).

 Ingram's ancestors were Scottish Presbyterians who had settled in
County
Down. His grandfather, Captain John Ingram had a linen mill at
Glennane,
Co. Armagh and raised at his own expense a corps of the Volunteers in
1782. According to Falkiner, Ingram,while not a member of the Young
Ireland fraternity, " though his immediate acquaintances and
associates
included several who were in touch with the Young Ireland in its
earlier
stages and whose own sympathies with the United Irishmen were
probably
warmed by the fact that his grandfather had raised in the County
Armagh, in
connection with the Volunteer movement , a corps known as the
Lisdrumhure or Mountnorris Volunteers..."

4



 Ingram was six years old when his father died. His mother brought
her
family to Newry in order to advance their education. Since Glennane is
just
nine miles from Newry the loss of his father brought Ingram close to
his
family's radical roots. The Presbyterians of the time were heavily
influenced
by the ideals of the American war of independence and the French
revolution. Glennane,once one of the prettiest villages in County
Armagh,
today is a sad place with many boarded-up houses and a memorial to
sixteen
local men killed in the troubles.

 There was subsequent speculation that Ingram's authorship of The
Memory of the Dead was not widely known and that he regretted that
authorship. I believe that the evidence does not support the
speculation on
either of these points.

 The fame which the poem brought Ingram was immediate, according to
Falkiner. By 1845 it was arranged for voice and piano in a volume
called
The Spirit of the Nation, published by James Duffy but neither the
the
composer nor Ingram are cited in the book. Thomas Carlyle met Ingram
on a
visit to Howth on July 6th and 7th,1849 and described him as "author
of the
Repeal Song "True men like you men" and as " a clever indignant kind
of
little fellow."(Lyster;l909;7).

 The Memory of the Dead was also well known to students, as Budd and
Hinds confirm in the following account;-"A student, G.B. Morgan wrote
from House 37 to his mother on November 10th, 1853 that at the
College
Historical Society opening meeting on the night before he had heard a
"capital" address from John Kells Ingram. " It was Ingram who wrote
the
celebrated song " who fears to speak of ninety eight". He was
enthusiastically cheered by the undergraduates on the commencement
and
the end of his speech; and also on leaving the room. The Provost , as
chairman, acted very badly, leaving the room very prematurely, and
thus,
putting a stop to the proceedings before the time. We thus lost a
speech from
Butt, who was there. The undergraduates kept up shouts of
'Butt!,Butt!',
while the Provost was leaving, to annoy him. Indeed the Provost
behaved
very shabbily." (Budd and Hinds;pp. 73-74). In their discussion of the
then
Provost MacDonnell, Webb and McDowell confirm that " by the time he
became Provost his liberalism was wearing a bit thin."(157). Perhaps
the
thought of two economists in one evening, Ingram and Butt, was too
much
for the Provost to bear.

 In 1870 a Latin version of the Memory of the Dead by Tyrell was
published in Kottabos. There followed several Irish translations. In
1882 on
St Patrick's night, The Memory of the Dead was printed on a concert
programme at the Round Room of the Rotunda. with Dr Ingram's name
appended as author. A College secret is prime example of oxymoron and
Ingram's authorship of The Memory of the Dead must have been one of
the
worst kept secrets of the College then or since.

 Speculation that Ingram regretted the sentiments in The Memory of
the
Dead is also unfounded. Shortly after Ingram's death on May 1st, 1907,
Mr
Henry Salt of Devon wrote in The Times that he had requested Ingram's

5



permission in 1892 to include The Memory of the Dead in his anthology
Songs of Freedom. Ingram replied that " I am quite willing that you
should
print my stanzas in your volume. You will not suppose that the
effusion of
the youth exactly represents the convictions of the man. But I have
never
been ashamed of having written the verses. They were the fruit of
genuine
feeling." Confirmation of this is provided in Ingram's copy of Dublin
Verses
by Members of Trinity College, edited by H.A. Hinkson and published
in
1894 (7). Ingram's handwritten emendation to the second stanza
substitutes "
the cause for which they died" for " the fame of those who died". The
concluding part of the stanza in the revised version reads;

 "All, all are gone- but still lives on

 The cause for which they died

 And true men, like you, men,

 Remember them with pride."
The 1894 version by emphasising the cause of 1798 might be said to be
more
radical than the original in 1843. There are no signs of regret for
having
written the original.

 In 1900 Ingram published Sonnets and Other Poems, The prefatory note
on the Memory of the Dead reads; " Some persons have believed or
affected
to believe that I am ashamed of having written it, and would gladly,
if l
could, disown its ownership. Those who know me do not need to be told
that
this idea is without foundation. I think the Irish race should be
grateful to
men who, in evil times, however mistaken may have been their policy,
gave
their lives for their country. But l have no sympathy with those who
preach
sedition in our own day when all the circumstances are radically
altered. In
my opinion no real popular interest can now be furthered by
violence." (1900,
6-7).

 Sonnets and Other Poems contains Ingram's last poem, National
Presage, a
return to the theme of The Memory of the Dead, published almost sixty
years
before.

 "Unhappy Erin, what a lot was thine!

 Half-conquered by a greedy robber band;

 Misled by zealots, wresting laws divine

 To sanction every dark or mad design;

 Lured by false lights of pseudo-patriot league

 Through crooked paths of faction and intrigue;

 And drugg'd with selfish flatter's poisoned wine.

 Yet reading all thy mournful history,

 Thy children, with a mystic faith sublime,

 Turn to the future, confident that Fate,

 Become at last thy friend, reserves for thee,

 To be thy portion in the coming time,

 They know not what- but surely something great."

 In 1905 in The Final Transition Ingram states that The House of
Lords, "the
aristocratic chamber" and titles of honour should disappear. "The gift
of

6



knighthoods is among the few forms of bribery still tolerated... all
this false
gilding will pass away with the growth of genuine Republican
feeling."
Ireland will be separated from the other British states and become
independent. (Lyster 46). He advocated "Home-rule all round, that is
of
confiding the separate management of their internal affairs to
England,
Scotland, and Wales, severally, as well as to Ireland...... If Ireland
were
simply cut off from the Union,it would be difficult to interest
England and
Scotland in her affairs sufficiently to secure for the Irish minority
the
guardianship which it might possibly require." Positivism he saw
crucial to
the evolution of an independent Ireland. " Only by the conversion of
the
"Two Nations" which inhabit the island can its permanent pacification
and its
continuous progress be assured." (Ingram;1905;pp. 58-9).

 Ingram's thoughts on the relationships between the unionist and
nationalist traditions in Ireland and in the relationships between
Ireland and
the devolved parliaments in England, Scotland and Wales, are
remarkably
similar to those agreed at Stormont on Good Friday, and to be put
before all
voters in the island of Ireland in eleven days time. Ingram's
patriotic poetry
echoes down through the decades. I turn now to his lifelong service to
this
College.

INGRAM'S CONTRIBUTION TO TCD.

 John Kells Ingram was born in Templecarne, near Pettigo, County
Donegal
on July 7th, 1823. It is a quiet rural area where counties Donegal
and
Fermanagh meet. The glebe is on the Fermanagh side of the river that
divides
the small town and the chapel is on the Donegal side. Lieut. Robert
Boteler
in the Ordinance Survey Memoirs of 1834/5 wrote that " remarkable
events
of no kind are recorded as having taken place in this parish".
Ingram's
father,William, a scholar of TCD in 1790, was the Church of Ireland
rector.
When the Revd. Ingram died in 1829 his widow took her five children
to
Newry because of her late husband's wish to further their education.
Ingram
studied at Mr Lyons School in Newry from 1829 until 1837 and lived at
35
Hill street. He entered Trinity College,Dublin on October 13, 1837,
at
fourteen years of age, and obtained first place at entrance. It was
the
beginning of a distinguished contribution to College extending for
seventy
years, He gained a sizarship in 1838 and scholarship in 1840. He
obtained a
senior Moderatorship in Mathematics in 1842.
 At the fellowship examination in 1845 he was awarded the Madden
premium and in 1846 he was elected to fellowship and commenced his
studies in law. He served with distinction as Professor of Oratory
(1852-1866)
and of English Literature (1855-1866), Regius Professor of
Greek(1866-1879),
Librarian (1879-1886), Senior Lecturer(1886-1893) Registrar
(1893-1896) and
Vice Provost (1898-1899). The breadth of Ingram's scholarship merits
for him
the highest accolade from McDowell and Webb. "With scholarly
publications
in archaeology, mathematics, etymology,medieval manuscripts,
Shakespearean criticism and economics " he rightly disdained the "I am
not
competent to discuss" approach in which nearly every specialist takes
refuge

7



today(1982)" (292-3.) On his administrative record they write that
"the
neatness and accuracy of the College records during his tenure
contrast
strongly with the careless and slovenly work of even such able men as
Jellett
and Mahaffy, for Ingram was free from the impatience and self-
importance
which prevent able men from carrying out routine tasks
efficiently." (293).

 No lectures had been held for nearly twenty years by the previous
Professor of Oratory, MacDonnell, who became Provost in 1852. As Luce
notes," Ingram threw himself into his new duties with vigour and
enthusiasm. In 1855 he persuaded the Board to allow him to widen the
scope
of his teaching to include English literature as well as oratory, the
change
being recognised by an alteration in the title of the chair. This led
almost at
once to the institution of a new moderatorship course in which
English
literature could be studied along with history,jurisprudence and
economics."
(Luce;1992;103).

 Ingram was thus the founder of the School of English Literature. He
had
a life long interest in poetry. In 1840 at sixteen he published
sonnets in
Dublin University Magazine. His well received volume, Sonnets and
Other
Poems, described by Lyster as " a volume full of autobiography,
interest and
beauty"(14) and published over sixty years later in 1903.

 In A Filial Tribute he thanks his widowed mother for the sacrifices
which
she made so that he might receive education in the classics.

 "To have look'd on these Greek splendours- what a gain?

 And scarcely less that l have learned to prize

 The imperial Roman spirit, strong and wise,

 Nor wanting in a pure poetic vein


As in sympathetic Mantuan swain

 Whose Muse "walks highest' if she seldom "flies";

 ..... My mother! thy laborious widow'd days

 Have won for me these boons- ah! ill repaid

 By this my heartfelt, but too tardy praise. (A Filial Tribute 1-11)
Our Public Orator, John Luce, will no doubt today enjoy the section of
A
Filial Tribute which reads;

 "If l have heard with wonder and delight

 The verse of Homer with triumphant chime

 Breaking for ever on the shores of time."
And Ingram's successor as Regius Professor, John Dillon, will also

 " Have dwelt, deep-rapt on Plato's dreams sublime."
Alas, Provost, l could find no reference to Cicero in the classical
poetry of
Ingram and move instead to his growing interest in geometry;

 "When closed my song-charmd boyhood's dreamy days,

 Began austerer Science to invite

 My spirit, seeking everywhere for light,

 I learned the line and surface to appraise,

 And star and planet fix'd my serious gaze." (The Religion of
Humanity,xiv).

8



 Ingram was a deeply spiritual person. This is shown in poems on the
deaths of his wife Madeline Johnston, from County Derry, in 1862 and
of his
son, Thomas Dunbar,in 1895. On the death of his wife Ingram wrote;

 "Possessing wealth past human estimate

 In her who brought all blessings to my door,

 Now in the eternal world my treasure lies


From thoughts of her l borrow day by day

 Strength to my feet and and guidance on my way,

 Yet walking thus by faith, l yearn for sight


Yearn for her visibel presence, and the light

 That shone for me from those loving eyes." (Love and Sorrow,xvi)
Thomas was a scholar of TCD in 1890, the centenary of the election of
his
grandfather, and died five years later in South Africa. Ingram
remembers his
dead wife and son;

 One sleeps in Erin, near the home she bless'd

 Where grateful hearts still worship her; and one

 Who pass'd, his active manhood scarce begun,

 And all his poet-soul yet unexpress'd,

 Lies under tamarisk boughs,where Afric's sun

 Looks down on hallow'd ground at Beaufortwest." (Winged
Thoughts,1898)

 Ingram became Regius Professor of Greek in 1866. In that year he
examined J.G. Swift MacNeill at entrance. MacNeill,who obtained first
place,
describes Ingram as " a gentleman of the very widest and most
profound
erudition, a great historian, a great Greek scholar, and a great
exponent of
philosophy" and as " a man of medium size, with hair prematurely grey
and
wonderfully penetrating bluish-grey eyes. He had a very kindly,
reassuring
manner, with a quiet demeanour which invariably commanded
respect."(1925,55).

 Not since 1805. according to McDowell and Webb, had any holder of
the
chair of Greek treated it as any more than a routine teaching office
or made
any contribution to Greek studies. In 1873 Ingram. Mahaffy,Tyrell and
Benjamin Williamson founded Hermethena which, according to Dillon,
"from the outset published articles and reviews of considerable
importance,
primarily on classical subjects, but also in such areas as philosophy
and
mathematics, Its reviews were much feared, and with good reason. Under
the
editorship of Tyrell it is fair to say that it became one of the top
classical
journals of the English-speaking world." (1991,247).

 Appointed Librarian in 1879, Ingram proposed to the Board in June
1881 that the Book of Kells be placed in a display case in the Long
Room.(Fox;1991). Ingram was President of the Library Association of
Great
Britain and presided at its meeting in Dublin in 1884. He was a
founding
trustee of the National Library of Ireland in 1878 and Vice President
of The
Library Association of Ireland founded in 1904.

9



 In words which will make Ingram's successors as Senior Lecturer
green
with envy, McDowell and Webb state that " from 1888, he used his now
relatively leisured position as Senior Lecturer to publish his History
of
Political Economy."

 The contribution of Ingram to the life of College was without
boundary.
Ingram supported the admission of women to College and to Mrs Anne
Jellicoe, founder and first principal of Alexandra College he
dedicated his
poem "To A.J. a Monody", described by Lyster as "Dr Ingram's longest
flight
of sustained noble excellence in verse."(9).He was secretary to the
committee
which commissioned and financed the statues of Burke and Goldsmith at
Front Gate. The diplomatic skills which assisted the return of the
Hist to
College in 1843 helped heal a split between the Boat Club and Rowing
Club
in 1898 when Ingram chaired the crucial meeting. (West, l991,21;
Bailey,
1947;101). He was then 75 years old but "he never completely lost the
idealism of his youth. He befriended student societies and clubs and
on most
political issues he was well to the left of his colleagues."( McDowell
and
Webb; 294). The point is echoed by Luce, " to the end of his long life
he
retained a liberal and tolerant outlook."

 Gordon Herries Davis (1991;330-1) includes Ingram in a select list
such as
Fitzgerald, Hamilton, Haughton,Joly, the Lloyds, A.A. Luce, Mahaffy
and
Salmon as scholars who passed virtually their entire adult lives
within the
college community and for whom "Trinity was part of their very being.
It
provided them with the environment necessary for the development of
their
intellectual creativity; it was in a very real and almost literal
sense their Alma
Mater."

 In view of Ingram's many distinctions and his service and dedication
to
College the question might be asked why he did not become Provost.
His
biographer in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1907-1908)
states
that " only his closest friends were aware of how narrowly he missed
nomination for the highest position in the College, when, in 1881, Mr
Gladstone, was called upon to recommend to the Crown a successor to
Provost Humphrey Lloyd."(2). John Hewitt Jellett was appointed
Provost, " a
sound choice" according to McDowell and Webb.

 Ingram's liberalism was more active than Jellet's. Ingram had the
support of
the Lord Lieutenant Cowper and the Attorney General. But Jellett was a
more
astute academic politician. An account of the Board at the time by
Dickson
was that it consisted " of three capables, three incapables, and one
man
capable of anything, the last being Jellett." (McDowell and Webb,
286). The
Church of Ireland synod provided Jellett with another outlet for his
political
skills whereas according to Swift MacNeill, Ingram " because of his
devotion
to scholarship took little part in active political life and was the
subject of one
of Mr O'Connell's jibes that "the bird who once sang so sweetly is now
caged
and silent in Trinity College." Whereas Jellett was a member of the
synod,
Ingram "had not entered into Holy Orders and indeed it was whispered
to
his detriment that he held Positivist views which would be unsuitable
in a
head of a College founded for the advancement of true religion and
useful
learning". (MacNeill,56).

10



 The 14 volume Diaries of Gladstone (Foot and Matthews, 1968-94)
record no correspondence concerning either Provost Jellett or the
provostial
representations on Ingram's behalf. Dr Vaughan of the History School
recommends that we must enquire why there is no record of the
correspondence.

 Perhaps there is another reason why Gladstone declined to nominate
Ingram as Provost? The Irish Secretary, Lord Hartington was asked by
Gladstone on December 14th, 1872, to to find an adviser for the
government
would " be strong in special knowledge of our ground as far as we have
to
deal with Trinity College. We want very much some individual who
looking
at the matter from a Trinity College point of view and thoroughly
well
acquainted with the laws and working of that institution would form a
perfectly dry impartial judgement on the various points of the plan,
so that
his criticisms might reveal to us the weak places.
Some one in short who would do for us,not as a friend but judicially,
what
Stopford did for me in the matter of the Irish Church." (Gladstone
Diaries,
14/12/73.) Hartington recommended Ingram to Gladstone on the
following
day.

Ingram visited Gladstone on January 16th, 1873. "Dr Ingram came in
aft(ernoon) and l was able to spend several hours with him on the
Univ(ersity) question." On January 17 the diary reads, "many hours
with Dr I.
on the Bill and scheme; in truth, almost from breakf(ast) to dinner.
Conversation with him in ev(enin)g on Homer and ancient questions."
On
January 18th, Gladstone wrote his memorandum to cabinet on the Bill.
The
memorandum included establishing a non-Collegiate element,
substituting a
Council for the Provost and Seven Fellows, altering the title to the
University
of Dublin simply, the allocation of property and absorption of the
Queens
University, Gladstone wrote to Ingram on January 25th and on February
1st,
11th.and 12th., the day before he introduced the Bill in the House of
Commons. Gladstone wrote to Ingram again on February 14th and copied
the letter on February 15th to Earl Spencer, the Irish lord
lieutenant. " I send
you herewith copy of a letter l have addressed to Dr. Ingram, who will
now l
presume return to Dublin."

 Gladstone's Irish Universities Bill contained such unattractive
measures
as government representatives on the Board and the closure of the
university
at Galway on the grounds that it was uneconomic. It was defeated in
Parliament on 12 March 1873 by three votes and the votes against the
Bill by
the Dublin University M.P.s David Plunkett and John Ball were crucial.
TCD
opinion on the defeat of Gladstone's Bill was unequivocal. "College
was
saved from the gravest threat to its future since the Jacobite
occupation of
1690. But Gladstone was never to be forgiven."(McDowell and Webb,
255).
Luce notes that under the Bill Trinity "would lose its autonomy and
its
Divinity School; it would probably lose a portion of its endowments;
and
worst of all, its freedom to offer its students a broad and liberal
education"
because of "restrictive arrangements laid down for the teaching and

11



examining of the "sensitive" subjects of theology,philosophy and
modern
history." (Luce;98).

 We do not know how much the failed Universities Bill reflects the
extensive
advice of Ingram. Gladstone lost office because of his defeat on the
Irish
Universities Bill and that may have influenced his choice of Jellett
over
Ingram as Provost eight years later. As Gladstone's adviser Ingram was
in a
Catch 22 situation. If Ingram's advice was in favour of the Bill he
would be
identified later as the author of Gladstone's loss of office. If
Ingram advised
against the Bill he would be identified in Gladstone's mind as a weak
advocate.

 The TCD Board minutes of the time record decisions rather than debate
and
Ingram is not mentioned in the minutes on the University Bill. The
Board
minute of February 17th records that Provost Lloyd appointed a
committee
to prepare a petition against the proposed Bill for University
Education. On
February 24th the petition to be laid before the Senate was agreed by
the
Board and was passed by the Senate by a large majority on the
following
day. At Board on March 4th it was decided that Dr Ball M.P should be
informed of the views of the Board. Ingram's role as Gladstone's
adviser on
the University Bill appears not to have been known to his
contemporaries or
to College historians.

 His standing remained high. In regard to the Provostship MacNeill
maintains that while Ingram's "failure to reach that office may have
caused
disappointment to him he had the consolation of knowing that in the
estimate
of the world of learning he was the best man for the
place." (1925,55).

 The success of TCD in opposing the 1873 legislation was repeated
under
Provost Traill in securing the exclusion of the College from the
political
interference of the Universities Act in 1908 and the securing of
Letters Patent
in 1911 "which in addition to making important constitutional changes
in the
College returned to it the right of making its own statutes, which had
been
taken by the Crown in 1637." (Statutes of TCD, 1994,(11). This
protected the
College's autonomy both from actual political interference from
Westminster
and from a Home Rule parliament. Protection for the autonomy of TCD
was
also secured by Provost Bernard in Section 64 of the Government of
Ireland
Act, 1920.

 When Jellett died in 1888 the Conservatives were back in office and
there
was little prospect that Ingram, a liberal, would receive a nomination
as
successor to Jellett. The new Provost George Salmon nominated Ingram
as
Vice Provost in 1898.

 This was a golden age in TCD. According to McDowell and Webb the
tercentenary in 1892 " marks the beginning of the decade in which the
reputation of the College was higher than ever before or since. For it
can be
fairly said that of the Fellows and Professors of the closing years of
the
century over a quarter were men whose scholarship was already, or was
shortly to become, widely recognised outside Ireland, while at least
another
quarter had substantial scholarly achievements which would make their
names well known in Ireland to the general world of intellect and
outside it
to men in their own field of learning." (284). Ingram was thus a
leading light

12



in a bright constellation. We now move to his international scholarly
reputation.

INGRAM THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOLAR

 Ingram was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1847. For forty
three
years he served on its governing body. He was secretary for eighteen
years
and vice president for twelve. He was president from 1892 to 1896. In
his
presidential address he referred to the Academy as " a common ground
on
which Irishmen, otherwise of different views, may meet as friends,
for
mutual assistance and encouragement in the pursuit of truth, in the
cultivation of letters and in the illustration of our national
memorials." This
was an echo of the unity theme, "and teach us to unite", of his
patriotic
poem of almost fifty years before.

 Ingram was a founder in 1847 of the Statistical and Social Inquiry
Society
of Ireland, then known as the Dublin Statistical Society. The first
meeting
was held in Dr Hancock's rooms in 16 Botany Bay in October 1847 some
38
years before the American Economics Association was founded in 1885
and
44 years before the Royal Economics Society was founded in 1891.
Ingram
later wrote that " it was the pressure of social problems then
imperatively
demanding attention that led its youthful founders to attempt the
establishment of such an institution" adding that " it has not
occupied itself
with dilettante statistics, collected with no special purpose, and
tending to no
definite conclusion. It has from the first applied itself, in the
spirit of earnest
enquiry, to the most important questions affecting the condition of
the
country." (Ingram,1864; Daly, l997;13). Ingram's words " the spirit of
earnest
enquiry" were chosen by Mary Daly as the title of her book
commemorating
150 years of the society this year when Professor Dermot McAleese is
president. The goal of an improved society through scientific
investigation
was derived from the positivism of Auguste Comte, a philosophy which
heavily influenced Ingram.

 The influence of Comte made Ingram critical of prevailing trends in
economics. In his address as President of the Statistical and Social
Inquiry
Society to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in
Dublin in
1888, he dealt with the issue of whether economics could claim to be
properly
scientific in character and criticism that " Some of the cultivators
of the older
branches of research but half recognised the right of Political
Economy and
Statistics to citizenship in the commonwealth of science, and it was
not
obscurely intimated that these studies would do well to relinquish
pretensions which could not be sustained." Ingram made four major
criticisms of contemporary economics.

(1) that the study of economics ought to be systematically combined
with
that of other aspects of social existence;
(2) that the excessive tendency to abstraction and to unreal
simplifications
should be checked;
(3) that the a priori deductive method should be changed for the
historical;
and
(4) that that economic laws and the practical prescriptions founded on
them
should be conceived and expressed in a less absolute form.
13



 To Ingram, economics is one branch of the general science of
sociology.
In turn sociology has an importance and interest transcending that of
every
other department of human knowledge. The most serious mistake made by
economists since the middle period of the nineteenth century was to
isolate
their study. He believed that " either as a fruitful branch of
speculation, or
as an important source of practical guidance, political economy would
cease
to command attention, unless it were linked in close connection with
the
general science of society, unless, in fact, it should be subsumed
under and
absorbed into Sociology." (Falkiner;1908,119). The integration of
economics
into sociology is based also on Comte, the first writer to popularise
the term
sociology.

 In regard to the excessive abstraction argument he criticised Ricardo
in
particular " for viciously abstract presentations of concepts." For
example
man is not just labour. He is before all things a man and a member of
society.
He is usually head of a household and he is a citizen. In Ingram's
labour
market master and workman fulfill different but equally necessary
parts in a
joint social enterprise. In his address to the Trades Union Congress
of 1888
Ingram listed adequate wages, a well regulated home and education as "
the
true means of achieving the end of all your efforts- a better and
nobler life for
the workman of the future."

 He believed that economists exaggerate immensely the office of
deduction
in their investigations. In the historical approach they would examine
also
factors such as political institutions, family arrangements, religious
beliefs,
morals and customs. He felt that there was a "too absolute character"
in the
theoretical and practical conclusions of economists".

 These ideas formed the basis for his History of Political Economy
(1888)
on which Ingram's international reputation was built. The work proved
immensely popular and was translated into German and Spanish (1890),
Polish and Russian (1891), Italian and Swedish(1892), French(1893),
Czech(1895), and Japanese (1896). Ingram's ideas were close to those
of the
German Historical School which was influential between the 1840s and
the
1880s in the works of Wilhelm Roscher, Bruno Hildebrand, Karl Knies
and
Gustav Schmoller. The translator of the German edition (1890) welcomes
it as
"in harmony with the most advanced speculation in Political Economy
of
German thinkers". (Lyster;32).

 In his preface to the Japanese edition Ingram hoped that the work
might
help "to preserve the Japanese mind from the narrowness which so long
beset
our Western labours on this subject (of economics)... simply to
transplant to
the soil of Japan the imperfect solutions at which we have arrived
would fail
to satisfy her wants."(Lyster;38)

 -The contribution of Ingram, Cliff Leslie, and John Elliott Cairnes
made
TCD the leading English language centre of the Historical School. "In
the
United States Ingram was one of the forces producing what with some
exaggeration was called "the new economics" ..He helped to set in
motion
forces which culminated in the formation of the American Economics
Association in 1885..The American Economics Association fittingly
recognised the services of Dr Ingram by making him an honorary member
in
1891"( Ely;1915;xii). In 1893 he was conferred with an honorary degree
of

14



LL.D. from Glasgow. Between 1882 and 1888 he wrote the entries in
Encyclopaedia Britannica on Pierre Leroux, Cliffe Leslie,John
McCulloch,George van Maurer, William Petty, Francois Quesnay, Karl
Rau,
David Ricardo, Jean Baptiste Say, Adam Smith, Jacques Turgot, and
Arthur
Young. He also wrote the entries on sumptuary laws and slavery. From
1891
to 1896 Ingram wrote the entries in Palgrave's Dictionary of Economics
on
Cliff Leslie, Frederich List, and Karl Marx. He also wrote on labour
and trade
issues as well as on positivism. Ingram's international fame at this
time is
well captured in a letter from the Professor of Economics at Harvard
to his
opposite number at Columbia. Frank Taussig wrote to Edward Seligman;
"Have you seen Ingram's article in the volume of Britannica, recently
issued,
on Political Economy? It is an excellent sketch of the history of
political
economy, the best in our language, by all odds. It is just what l
want, as a
book of general reference for the students in one of next year's
courses." (May
1886)
Richard Ely,of Johns Hopkins, summarises the impact of Ingram as
follows;" A more humane and genial spirit has taken the place of the
old
dryness and hardness which once repelled so many of the best minds
from
the study of Economics and won for it the name of 'the dismal
science'. In
particular, the problem of the Proletariat, of the condition and
future of the
working classes- has taken a powerful hold on the feelings, as well as
the
intellect, of Society, and is studied in a more earnest and
sympathetic spirit
than at any former time." (ibid;xix).

 In the end the Historicists were incorporated into the mainstream. As
Sir
Eric Roll states " tacitly, the indispensability of both branches of
economic
enquiry, the historical-realistic and the abstract-analytical, was
mutually
admitted." (1961;310). In the best works both branches are usually
combined.
Without the historical-realistic branch much of modern economics in
the
abstract analytical stream becomes in the words of James Trevithick of
TCD
and Kings, Cambridge, "A spot-the-word competition." Indeed it is
frequently claimed that for advancement in that branch of economics
the
fewer people who can understand a journal article, the better. On the
other
hand an absence of abstract analysis and exclusive reliance on the
historical-
realistic branch is mere description of the status quo without an
intellectual
dimension. For example, attempts to explain the high growth of both
output
and employment in the Irish economy in recent years- the so-called
Celtic
Tiger- would be futile if they relied on traditional theories of
economic
growth. The investment ratio in Ireland is now lower than a decade ago
but
factors such as education, deregulation and free trade in product and
factor
markets, the 1993 devaluation of the Irish pound without inflationary
impacts, order in the public finances, demographic change, increased
participation of women in the labour force etc. have translated lower
investment into more output growth and output growth into more
employment growth than ever before in Ireland.

 Ingram stated that the members of the Statistical and Social Inquiry
Society ' do not, as such, seek to intrude into the province of the
politician.
Our business is to discover and demonstrate, by the application of
scientific
principles, the legislative action appropriate to each phase of
society and each

15



group of economic conditions. At what precise time, and in what
particular
form, our conclusions should be adopted in practice is a question of
political
expediency, which those who are acquainted with the varying exigencies
of
public life can determine better than we. But it is encouraging to
know that in
endeavouring by our researches and discussions to overthrow error and
to
establish truth, we are labouring at no unpractical-no hopeless task;
that any
wise suggestion developed here may one day become a beneficent
reality, a
living agency for good; and that thus, without sitting on the councils
of the
State, or mingling in the strife of parties, we may, each of us, do
something
towards the improvement of the institutions of our country." (Falkiner;
123).

 Ingram became a follower of Comte in 1851 and visited him four years
later in Paris. In the positivist system there are three stages in
the
development of the human mind; the theological, the metaphysical and
the
positive. To serve humanity it is necessary to know humanity. The
regeneration of society is to be accomplished by the subordination of
politics
to morals, by the moralisation of capital, by the renovation of the
family and
by a higher conception of marriage. All enquiry into causes or
ultimate
origins is abandoned. The study of humanity is substituted for
revealed
religion. God is replaced by humanity. The object of love is humanity,
a unity
of all men and women, past, present and to come, whose lives are
devoted to
the well being and progress of the race. The positivist church in
London was
adorned with the busts of the saints of humanity. The services
included
addresses and positivist hymns. Huxley, an opponent, described
positivism
as catholicism without Christianity to which the Comtist response was
to
describe positivism as catholicism plus science. (Encyclopaedia
Britannica,6
and 18).

 Ingram died on May 1, 1907 at this home 38 Upper Mount Street, where
he
lived since 1884 Previously he lived at 2 Wellington Road since his
marriage
in 1862. The tributes paid were fulsome. The Times noted that Ingram
had
filled " nearly all the important offices with which the College could
reward
his industry and brilliant learning" and that " those who worked with
Ingram
in Trinity College were persuaded that he was the best educated man
in
Europe." (May 2,l907) The Irish Times stated that "in Dr Ingram,
Ireland
loses her ripest scholar and one of her most lovable and interesting
personalities"(May 2, l907). The student writers in TCD stated that "
an
intense love of humanity, finding expression in his opposition to
oppression
was the key-note to his life" and that the secret of Dr Ingram's great
influence
was " his quiet earnestness, zeal and sincerity in every work which
he
undertook and his sympathetic encouragement of the young men who were
willing to catch the spirit of his teaching." (May 8, 1907).

 Professor, and later Provost, Bernard in a sermon in College chapel
on
the Sunday after Ingram's death stated the fact that Ingram believed
that the
teaching of Christ would be superseded by Comte is " one of those
perplexing anomalies of the human mind." (Evening Mail, May 6th,
1907).

Tyrell's obituary of Ingram on May 2nd recounts that " like many
brilliant
men who were young in the middle of the last century, he fell under
the
influence of Auguste Comte and, (unlike many of them) maintained even
to

16



old age a belief in that arid and unsatisfying philosophy." Tyrell
went on to
state that " we are not willing to pronounce on the merits or demerits
of the
Comtian philosophy" but added that "to us it seems to offer a stone
for
bread."

 Ingram's funeral service in College Chapel on May 3rd, 1907 was
without
religious doubts. Mahaffy presided and read the lesson. The chapel and
the
College mace were draped in black in mourning. The chapel choir was
praised for its renditions of Croft, Purcell, Psalm 90, the anthem How
Blest
are the Departed, and Rock of Ages. Ingram's sons and sons in law led
the
mourners. The Lord Chancellor, Mr Justice Andrews represented the
government. Ingram's academic colleagues and student friends, and his
colleagues from the Royal Irish Academy were just part of a very
large
congregation. The funeral took place to Mount Jerome where the Revd.
Canon J.H.Walsh D.D. was the officiating clergyman. In the Ingram
vault
rest also his mother, wife, his infant son Francis Ernest (1866) and
his
younger daughter Florence Beatrice (1918).

COMMEMORATION.

 In 1955 Ingram's elder daughter, Madeline Townley Balfour, of the
Townley Hall estate between Slane and Drogheda died. Her distant
cousin,
David Crichton offered the estate to College on favourable terms. At
the same
time John Kells Ingram junior, the last surviving member of the
Ingram
family, died in South Africa, leaving the bulk of his valuable estate
to TCD.
(Mitchell, 1957, 21). The bequest provided most the of the purchase
price. The
estate was named the John Kells Ingram Farm and the object of College
was
to provide students with a practical demonstration of an efficient,
and
profitable, farm and forest. The chairman of the management committee
was
Professor Frank Mitchell. A moderatorship course in agriculture was
established in 1959/60 and the Kellogg Foundation and the American
government assisted the project.
Alas,the project failed. No new students were enrolled after 1963/64
and the
farm was sold to the Department of Lands in 1968.

 Frank Mitchell continued to live at Townley Hall until his death
last
November. He provided useful assistance with this discourse when l
received his generous hospitality at Townley Hall on November 1st and
we
had an entire afternoon's discussion of Ingram. This discourse may
indeed
be Frank Mitchell's last joint publication. I want to thank also the
late Dr
Webb, Dr McDowell, Vice Provosts Spearman and Mayes and the
economists, historians and churchmen who helped so much in the
preparation of this discourse. I wish to thank also Professor Brian
Boydell
and Nicholas Carolan of The Irish Traditional Music Archive for
helping to
establish that not only can College claim the author of The memory of
the
Dead in Ingram but in John Edward Piggot, the composer of its music,
as
well.

In the Tercentenary Trinity Week in 1892 Ingram addressed the
celebratory
dinner. Two of his themes are important today- the community of

17



scholarship and the role of the university in society. As we welcome
today
our guests from Oxford and Cambridge let us recall the welcome from
Ingram. " I will not enter into any eulogy of Oxford, or of her sister
of
Cambridge, who is habitually united with her in our thoughts. If l did
so, l
might be met with the old reply, Quis Vituperavit? Their history is
one of the
national glories; their noble roll of worthies is familiar to us all
and we know
what an important part they have played in originating some of the
most
memorable movements in English thought. We in Trinity College have
felt
their influence ; their example has stimulated us; their kindness has
encouraged us. They have behaved towards us in the true spirit of
older
sisters; and for this l am sure that every Dublin man who hears me is
sincerely grateful and will join with me in the hope that the present
celebration will draw yet closer the bonds of mutual goodwill which
have
hitherto happily united us." On the world community of universities
and
their autonomy Ingram urged his audience as follows; " Let us comprise
in
one comprehensive act of thought all of the universities of the world
which
have responded to our call from London to Melbourne and Calcutta,
from
Leyden to Bologna, from Yale and Harvard to Vienna and St Petersburg.
Wherever such an institution has been established, we ought to regard
it as a
stronghold founded for the defence or true Science and sound Learning,
and
for carrying on the perennial warfare against ignorance, sciolism,
prejudice
and error." (Tercentenary Festival of the University of Dublin, 1894,
132-3.)

 Richardson's Trinity Monday poem says that " The day seemed so
splendid that l even attended the Discourse on Skelton, not a theme to
be
dwelt on." John Kells Ingram is indeed a theme to be dwelt on. 1998 is
the
200th anniversary of the events commemorated in The Memory of the
Dead
and the centenary of Ingram's election as Vice Provost. By then he was
an
international scholar of the highest repute and had contributed
handsomely
to the work of the College in English, Classics and Economics and held
most
of the College officerships. 1998 is also the thirtieth anniversary of
our
reluctant sale of the Kells Ingram Farm. We have a much greater
memorial
of John Kells Ingram. He wrote that " the true servant of
Humanity....will
think of the future of those he leaves behind. He will hope that his
life,
notwithstanding its imperfections, may have produced such impressions
as
will remain with them, or often recur to them, inspiring noble
impulses and
promoting beneficent deeds." (Ingram, 1904,145)

18



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