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Beaten from a single piece of
silver, the edges rolled and each tip pierced for suspension ribbons; the face
engraved with a pair of grenadiers, martial trophies, an uncrowned Harp of
Erin, and the motto: OBSTANTIBUS OBSTO (I oppose those who would oppose
us).
Overall height 5 ¼”,
overall width 4 ½”.
This magnificent gorget is that of
an officer of an Irish Volunteer regiment of about 1780. Hitherto unrecorded,
it is one of the finest and most evocative symbols ever encountered of a period
of Irish history now largely forgotten or misunderstood.
The colonists’ cause in the
American War for Independence evoked great sympathy in Ireland, where a
vociferous mercantile majority in Parliament felt itself in much the same
position as did the American colonists as regards legislation and
representation. When that war became international in 1778, through military
intervention by France in support of the colonists, Ireland immediately entered
the front-line - as the part of Great Britain most vulnerable to a French
invasion. Accordingly, units of Volunteers were raised across Ireland for its
protection but their armed presence in the kingdom was not to be limited to
home defence and, rapidly, the Volunteers became a force in Ireland for home
rule and free trade.
This unique and highly important
gorget is symbolic both of the nature of the Volunteers and their ambitions: no
other Volunteer gorget has been recorded that captures these factors with such
iconographic power and immediacy. The military role of the unit is indicated by
the presence of the pair of stalwart grenadiers. The ambivalent attitude of the
Volunteers (to resist those who would resist them - either the French invader
or the Westminster government) is made clear by the motto OBSTANTIBUS OBSTO.
The Harp of Erin, from which the crown has been deliberately omitted, makes
clear that the Volunteers’ first allegiance was to Ireland and not to the
British Crown. The gorget does not bear a regimental title but its irrefutable
provenance links it unequivocally with the County Limerick Fencible Volunteers,
a unit raised in 1779 by John Thomas Waller of Castletown, Co. Limerick, and
commanded by him until 1782. Waller, who was both the son and the father of
members of the Irish Parliament, had been High Sheriff for Co. Limerick in 1762
and was a vociferous advocate of Irish free trade. In terms of his social
position and his allegiances, Waller was typical of those Irish gentlemen who
were active in the Irish Volunteers in c.1780: this was almost certainly his
gorget.
Image reproduced by courtesy of Peter
Finer |
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