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Royal Dublin Society

The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) (Irish: Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath[1]) is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economically.[2] It was long active as a learned society, especially in agriculture, and played a major role in the development of Ireland’s national library and museums.

Abbreviation

RDS

25 June 1731 (1731-06-25)

Charitable

Nostri plena laboris
(Our work bears fruit)

Prof Owen Lewis

The Dublin Society (1731–1820)

The RDS is synonymous with its 160,000 m2 campus in Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland. The premises include the 'RDS Arena', 'RDS Simmonscourt', 'RDS Main Hall' and other venues which are used regularly for exhibitions, concerts and sporting events like the Dublin Horse Show or Leinster Rugby games.[3] The Royal Dublin Society was granted royal patronage in 1820 by George IV. The RDS Members' Club is a members-only club offering exclusive access to sports events on its premises and weekly luncheons and dinners.[4][5]


The RDS is one of nine organisations that may nominate candidates for the Seanad Éireann (Irish upper house of parliament) elections on the Agriculture panel.[6]

Music[edit]

The RDS association with classical music extends back to 1886 when it first organised a series of popular recitals[23] that took place over a phased basis from March, and it included works by Corelli, Haydn and Beethoven performed by teaching staff of the Royal Irish Academy of Music.


In subsequent years a number of RDS recitals were recorded by RTÉ for broadcast.[24] The RDS chamber recitals continued into 1980s and 1990s, hosting artists such as András Schiff, Jessye Norman, Isaac Stern and Nigel Kennedy. The last RDS chamber recital was held in October 2002 and featured Irish pianist Hugh Tinney.


The RDS became the main venue for Feis Ceoil in 1983 onward. In 2003 offered its first RDS Music Bursary of €10,000 to one of the winners of selected Feis Ceoil senior competitions.[25] The RDS Music Bursary currently offers two prizes, one of €15,000 and the RDS Jago Award of €5,000. Both prizes also offer performance engagements. An additional prize, the RDS Collins Memorial Performance Award is given to a former Music Bursary winner each year, offering them a professional performance opportunity with Blackwater Valley Opera Festival.

Agriculture[edit]

Agriculture has been a persistent theme of endeavour since the foundation of the Dublin Society. In its first eighteen months, the Society reprinted or published up-to-date material on the latest agricultural innovations, such as Jethro Tull's book on Tillage, a paper 'on improvement of flax by changing the soil' and 'a new method of draining marshy and boggy lands'. The Society followed this in the year to come with further publications on grass cultivation, saffron planting, drainage, management of hops, bee management, wool production and tillage. They also held demonstrations on how to use newly designed farm machinery.[26]


Forestry was encouraged from an equally early stage with records of the Society showing that premiums were increasingly awarded for afforestation from 1742 onwards. Between 1766 and 1806 over 55 million trees were planted in Ireland on foot of the Society's initiatives.[26]


The genesis of Dublin's Botanic Gardens can be found in the minute books of the Dublin Society as far back as 1732.[27] From this time onwards, the Dublin Society sporadically leased land around the city to conduct agricultural and botanic experiments and initiatives. In 1790, enabled by funding from the Irish Parliament, the Society leased land in Glasnevin with the intent of making the lands ready for delivering public education on botany. It appointed a professor of Botany to oversee the gardens along with an experienced head gardener from Scotland. With the completion of offices and greenhouses in 1799, the Botanic Gardens, Dublin were opened in 1800 and remained in the care of the Society until 1877 when they were transferred over to the State.[28]


In 1845 the early signs of potato blight that would go on to have a devastating effect on Ireland were detected by the RDS in the Botanic Gardens. The Society offered a prize of £20 for the best research on the poorly understood disease. Utilising knowledge of both agriculture and science, the Society directed its own scientists to find remedies, but despite many trials and experiments both in the Botanic Gardens and in the Society's laboratory in Leinster House, they were unable to find one.[29]


The first Spring Show was held in April 1831 on the grounds of Leinster House, Kildare Street, the purpose of which was to encourage best breeding practices in livestock by showcasing the best in the country. By 1848 the judges of the Show were satisfied that English breeders would soon be purchasing Irish stock such was the quality of cattle breeding on display. Their confidence was validated in 1856 at the Paris International Cattle Show where Irish shorthorn cattle took more prizes in proportion to livestock displayed, than their English and Scottish counterparts combined.[30] The Spring Show moved to the RDS grounds of Ballsbridge in 1881 and continued it there until the last Spring Show took place in 1992.[31]


The association with agriculture persists to today and it forms an important part of the Society's philanthropic mission.[32] The RDS Forestry and Woodland Awards have been awarded annually since 1988 and in 2017 had a prize fund of €15,000 which is spread across four different categories.[33] In 2016 the RDS, in conjunction with the IIEA, outlined the framework of a 'Climate Smart Agriculture' plan for Ireland.[34] The Society continues to award annual prizes for the best cattle in Ireland, including the Economic Breeding Index (EBI) dairy cow.[35] In 2021 the RDS was the host of the National Dialogues on Ireland's Food System, part of Ireland's engagement with the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021.[36]

Science[edit]

In the early period of the Society, science was innately linked to agriculture and industry. A link that continued well into the nineteenth century; for instance, the Botanic Gardens had cross-over appeal to both science and agriculture, as did the public lectures in veterinary science. But science began to also carve out its own separate area of interests towards the latter end of the eighteenth century with professorships in chemistry and physics funded by the Society in the 1790s, the employment of an itinerant geologist who toured Ireland collecting specimens for the Society, and the purchase of the Leskean Cabinet of minerals in 1792.[37][38]


The Dublin Society began holding science lectures covering an array of topics in 1797, with lectures on physics and chemistry made open to the public in 1824. In 1810 a large laboratory and lecture room were built in Hawkins House and a similar facility was constructed in Leinster House when the Society moved there, allowing the public lectures on science to continue (in what is now the Dáil Chamber in the Houses of the Oireachtas). In 1835 the RDS co-hosted the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which it also did again in 1957, and from 1838 commenced sponsoring science lectures outside of Dublin.


In 1903 the Society imported radium into Ireland for the first time and through experimental methods, devised by RDS Members John Joly and Walter Stevenson, one of the earliest forms of cancer treatment was created to much international acclaim. It subsequently became known as the 'Dublin method'. In 1914 the Society established the Irish Radium Institute to supply radon to Irish hospitals, a function it carried out until the Irish Radiological Institute was established in 1952.[39]


In 1961 the RDS held its first exhibition on atomic energy which was followed up in 1963 and 1966, garnering audiences of over 30,000. The Young Scientists and Technology Exhibition was started at this time by physicists Tom Burke and Tony Scott, the latter being a member of the RDS Science Committee. The Exhibition has been held in the RDS since 1966.


Today, the RDS continues to promote science in Ireland through the awarding of the Boyle Medal on a biennial basis, alternating between a scientist based in Ireland and an Irish scientist based abroad, with a prize of €20,000. The Boyle Medal has been awarded since 1899 and is Ireland's most prestigious scientific honour.[40]


The RDS Primary Science Fair encouraged primary school classes to explore science hypotheses and from 2017 operated in three cities around Ireland, with over 7,000 participating children across all three venues.[41] The RDS Primary Science Fair was cited as a positive example of informal science education by the Government commissioned 'STEM Education in the Irish School System'.[42] In 2019 the RDS developed Science Blast and ESB came on board as title sponsors. Science Blast is managed and delivered by the RDS. In its first year it had over 10,000 primary school pupils engaged with STEM.[43]


RDS STEM Learning is a continuous professional development programme for primary school teachers to gain confidence in teaching science in the classroom.[44]

Headquarters and venues[edit]

Grafton Street[edit]

The society constructed a house on Grafton Street as its first headquarters around 1766-67 and met for the first time there on the 3rd of December 1767. Adjacent to Navigation House, the office of the Commissioners for improving Inland Navigation and which later became the headquarters of the Royal Irish Academy.[45][46] It is likely the building was designed by Christopher Myers although Thomas Ivory was involved in designing part of a museum space.[47][48]


The schools of drawing were located at the rear of the buildings and were also designed by Myers.


The last meeting of the society at Grafton Street was held on the 4th of August 1796 and the building was then sold for £3,000.

Hawkins Street[edit]

A large dedicated headquarters for the society was developed at Hawkins Street close to the River Liffey in 1796.[49]


In 1820, the building was demolished and replaced with the Theatre Royal.

Leinster House[edit]

The society purchased Leinster House, home of the Duke of Leinster, in 1815 and founded a natural history museum there.[50]

Awards[edit]

Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence[edit]

The Boyle Medal (named after Robert Boyle (1627–1691), was inaugurated in 1899 and is awarded jointly by the RDS and the Irish Times for scientific research of exceptional merit in Ireland. By 2014 the medal had been awarded to 39 scientists.


Past recipients of the Boyle Medal:[62]

IAYSG

List of organisations based in the Republic of Ireland with royal patronage

List of tennis stadiums by capacity

Select Committee on Administration of Royal Dublin Society (14 July 1836). . Command papers. Vol. 445. Chairman William Smith O'Brien. HMSO. Retrieved 12 December 2016.

Report; with Minutes of evidence and Appendix

Official website

Scientific proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society from the : 1878–1924; 1883–1902

Biodiversity Heritage Library