LAWYERS CORPS, DUBLIN, LATE 18TH CENTURY SHOULDER BELT PLATE. Oval, gilt on copper, crowned Maid of Erin harp engraved at centre dividing the letters ''L - C'', the date ''1796'' engraved in the...

LAWYERS CORPS, DUBLIN, LATE 18TH CENTURY SHOULDER BELT PLATE. Oval, gilt on copper, crowned Maid of Erin harp engraved at centre dividing the letters ''L - C'', the date ''1796'' engraved in the field below the harp, twin ribbons above and below bearing the legend ''Pro Rege et Patria'' (for king and country), single hook and pair of fixing studs to reverse, maker's mark ''Bolland '' (Dublin) indistinctly struck on reverse, circa 1796, 3.1'' x 2.4'' (7.8 x 6.2cm) vertical approx. One of the more interesting aspects regarding the various units raised in Dublin was the way in which members of the same professional groupings came together to form units, lawyers, barristers, revenue officials, merchants, bankers, etc. De Latocnaye, the French émigré traveller, was in Dublin when the units were being raised, and commented on this professional exclusiveness, noting that they were ''all commanded by principled men of their own calling''. As Allan Blackstock records in his history of the Irish Yeomanry, ''An Ascendancy Army'', de Latocnaye also commented on another form of continuity with regard to the Lawyers Corps, one that gave rise to a common witticism of the day, that the Lawyers Corps needed no training, as they already knew very well how to charge. The legal profession had been the first profession in Ireland to admit Catholics, and the regiments raised by the lawyers became the only Dublin ones to admit Catholics freely. Daniel O'Connell was a prominent member of the Lawyers Corps. Only called to the bar in 1798, and short of funds, he modestly opted for the Lawyers Artillery, whose blue uniform cost only £4, far less than that of either of the other units in the Lawyers Corps, infantry and cavalry (the Lawyers Infantry uniform came in at £9, and the Cavalry uniform cost even more). Contemporary accounts record that the young O'Connell displayed an obsessive need to cut a dash as a member of the Lawyers Corps, intent not only on marking himself out as a rising young man, but also proclaiming the social significance of his inclusion. As Alan Blackstock observes in his history ''for the young Catholic lawyer, turning out in uniform with his colleagues confirmed the acceptance of himself and his co-religionists into a key profession''. The regiments of the Lawyers Corps were the first units in Ireland to receive their commissions, and considered themselves to be the premier Irish volunteer regiment. Needless to say, not all the members of the Lawyers Corps were as financially strapped as O'Connell, the Lawyers Corps being one of the more prosperous Dublin units. Jonah Barrington, a member of the Lawyers Infantry of the Lawyers Corps, related an anecdote which conveys the affluence of the various professional Dublin metropolitan corps, describing how elderly gentlemen of one of the units patrolled Merrion Square in a leisurely manner on fine evenings before stopping for tea and whist, but taking to their sedan chairs when the weather was less balmy, to be carried around the square with their muskets pointing out of the windows. The maker's mark on this shoulder belt plate is probably that of John Bolland, the Dublin silversmith, who had premises at 15 Smock Alley, 1781-94, at 4 Mary St. from 1795, and disappears from the Dublin directories in 1807.

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