You were what you ate

Discovering the role food played in Georgian society was just part of an array of events organised during Heritage Week to give us a glimpse into the past

OVER 20 PEOPLE sat around the large dining table on the first floor of one of the few privately-owned Georgian houses on Dublin's Merrion Square. Tasting caudle (an oaty drink like thin porridge), hot chocolate, macroons and dried fruit, the guests listened to food historian, Katherine Cahill speak about what the Georgians ate for breakfast.

"The home was the centre of hospitality. There were great social tensions around dining and the mistress of the house had responsibility for it to go well," explains Cahill. "For instance, fruit was a status symbol and having such fruit as pineapples was a show stopper," she adds.

Cahill is the author of Mrs Delaney's Menus, Medicines and Manners(New Island, 2005), which gives great insights into the daily lives of Georgian society. "I'm much more interested in the mechanisms of the house and how people lived than the grandeur," says Cahill.

Earlier in the day, art historian Conor Lucey gave over 60 people insights into the building trade of the early 18th century. "Georgian houses in Dublin were much less ornate on the outside than Georgian houses in London. They had plain brick facades and cut stone door cases but inside the houses had much richer plasterwork," he explains.

Merrion Square was conceived in the 1750s, following the earlier Georgian developments on the north side of the city. "Viscount Fitzwilliam and his brother were delighted to develop its potential but the Earl of Kildare who owned Leinster House was less pleased that his wonderful open views were threatened by development," says Lucey. Many of the houses on Merrion Square were built following builders' manuals of the time and were widely criticised for their lack of uniformity.

BOTH OF THESE EVENTS were part of the fascinating Merrion Square Heritage Open Day, held last Saturday as part of Heritage Week. Businessman Séamus Daly is the owner of the private house where the 18th century breakfast was held. "These houses have to be shared and lived in. It's great to have events like this, lighting the fires in the house and having people sit, chat and eat the way the Georgians did," he says. "For a long time, we wanted to ignore our history that was in any way connected with the coloniser but now we're interested in it."

Judging by attendances at many events held at historic buildings throughout the country, Heritage Week, which ran from August 24th to 31st, was a resounding success this year.

Military re-enactments, in particular, drew large crowds to places like Aughnanure Castle, Oughterard, Co Galway, Donegal Castle, Co Donegal, Dungarvan Castle, Co Waterford, and Charles Fort, the 17th century star-shaped fort outside Kinsale, Co Cork. For example, at Charles Fort last Saturday and Sunday, over 2,500 people turned up to watch military re-enactments.

"We attract different re-enactment groups every year who give displays of the weapons and military gear of different periods. We even had the Romans here," explains Karen Guerin, the supervisor of Office of Public Works (OPW) historic sites in Cork and west Waterford. "These events have become very popular in the last 10 years because they bring history alive. They bring a lot of colour and excitement to the sites. It's almost like you step back in time. The children love it," she says.

Many of OPW sites offer free admission over the weekends of Heritage Week, which encourages local people to visit historic properties near their homes. Many of the guides also get into the spirit of the occasion by dressing up in period costume.

"I think Heritage Week gives great publicity to the sites and it get families and local people to visit local castles and historic properties that they wouldn't usually go to," says Marie Gibbs, the OPW supervisor of Aughnanure Castle and Portumna Castle in Co Galway.

HERITAGE WEEK is a Europe-wide cultural initiative which was founded in 1985 to encourage people to visit historic buildings in their localities. Between August and October, many monuments and historic buildings which are usually closed open their doors to the public as part of the European Heritage Days.

Kevin Baird, the chief executive officer of the Irish Heritage Trust sees Heritage Week as an evolving concept. "Heritage means different things to different people and the strength of the programme is in its diversity. I think it is interpreted more widely in Britain and Ireland than in other European countries but people still need tools to help them discover what heritage means to them personally," he says.

Fota House in Co Cork, the only property currently managed by the Irish Heritage Trust, held events during Heritage Week. "We had a 19th century cookery event for children in which they went through the house as if they were kitchen staff," explains Tom Fannon, the manager of Fota House.

"For us, the important thing is to involve people as much as possible," he continues. "So rather than our guides regurgitating facts, we want visitors to take part in the tours by becoming a member of the household on the tour and finding out about that person as they move through the house." Fannon also says that visitors are often more interested in the servants' wing of the house than the grand style of the main wing.

Isabel Smyth from the Heritage Council, which is responsible for putting together the Heritage Week programme, says that there was a 12 per cent increase in events this year over last year. Approximately, two-thirds of these events focused on the built heritage, while one third focused on wildlife, landscape or other aspects of the natural heritage.

"What we've also noticed is that there is more creativity coming into events. Heritage Week is also about giving people a sense of responsibility for heritage at a local level," she says. And the Heritage Council is keen to continue expanding the programme to include more natural heritage events.

"We need more nature walks and other events that will give people an understanding of the threats that some natural heritage sites face," says Smyth. Heritage officers in various county councils will be focusing their minds on such issues for next year.

Siobhán Ryan, heritage officer at Sligo County Council, says: "In Sligo this year, over 150 people came to Mullaghmore head to look for dolphins with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group. Unfortunately, most of them had left before eight bottlenose dolphins appeared in the water. We also had about 25 people on a river walk in Sligo town. It's evocative events like these which we want to have more of alongside events that celebrate our archaeological and architectural heritage."