A Most Respectful Meeting of Merchants: Dublin Chamber of Commerce, A History

Enda McMahon

———————————————————

Book
€30.00

———————————————————

Publication date: 2014

ISBN: 978-1-907535-43-7

Category: History/Business

Type: Hardback

Price: €30.00

Dublin Chamber of Commerce dates its establishment to 1783. This was not the first organisation of business interests in the capital city but the late 18th century, the heyday of Georgian Dublin before the Act of Union, demanded a more progressive outlook. Free trade became fashionable and much of the work of the Chamber involved opposing government taxes and impositions of various kinds, especially involving the port of Dublin, through which most of the import and export trade of the country was conducted. From 1820 the Chamber of Commerce has represented business and the professions without interruption. observing the great historical changes in Ireland over almost two centuries and gradually coming to reflect a changed society and national allegiance. William Martin Murphy, that stalwart businessman, subject of Yeats’s scorn and sworn enemy of James Larkin, was president of Dublin Chamber during the Lockout of 1913. Chamber played its part in the economic war and protectionism, the expansion of the 1960s, the Celtic Tiger and more than one recession.

A Most Respectful Meeting of Merchants, as the members described themselves in one of their many official delegations to the British administration, is a history of business, of many interesting individuals, of the city of Dublin and of the wider country.

———————————————————

About the author

Enda MacMahon qualified as an architect in UCD and his interests include genealogy, history and architectural history. His first book was a collection of biographies of Dublin Chamber of Commerce presidents (for Dublin Chamber). He lives with his family in Dublin.