''Social and Personal'' is a long-running column in ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

''. Previously called ''Court and Personal'' it originally published the

Court Circular The Court Circular is the official record that lists the engagements carried out by the monarch of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms; the royal family; and appointments to their staff and to the court. It is issued by St James ...

s of the

British royal family The British royal family comprises Charles III and other members of his family. There is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member, although the Royal Household has issued different lists outlining who is considere ...

, the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the K ...

and brief

society reporting In journalism, the society page of a newspaper is largely or entirely devoted to the social and cultural events and gossip of the location covered. Other features that frequently appear on the society page are a calendar of charity events and pi ...

details of which members of the

upper class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status. Usually, these are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper cla ...

were available in their

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

s to receive callers.

''Court and Personal''

Following the

Partition of Ireland The Partition of Ireland () was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (the area today known as the R ...

in 1921, the column covered the

Governor-General of the Irish Free State The governor-general of the Irish Free State () was the official representative of the sovereign of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. By convention, the office was largely ceremonial. Nonetheless, it was controversial, as many Irish Nat ...

and

Governor of Northern Ireland The governor of Northern Ireland was the principal officer and representative in Northern Ireland of the British monarch. The office was established on 9 December 1922 and abolished on 18 July 1973. Overview The office of Governor of Northern I ...

, with entries placed, as for the Lord Lieutenant, below entries about the royal family. The 1937

Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland (, ) is the constitution, fundamental law of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. It guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected non-executi ...

established the office of

President of Ireland The president of Ireland () is the head of state of Republic of Ireland, Ireland and the supreme commander of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces. The presidency is a predominantly figurehead, ceremonial institution, serving as ...

, whose holder should "take precedence over all other persons in the State". The Fianna Fáil government criticised the column for listing President

Douglas Hyde Douglas Ross Hyde (; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949), known as (), was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician, and diplomat who served as the first president of Ireland from June 1938 to June 1945. He was a l ...

's engagements after those of the Royal Family and others, including leading members of the former

Protestant Ascendancy The Protestant Ascendancy (also known as the Ascendancy) was the sociopolitical and economical domination of Ireland between the 17th and early 20th centuries by a small Anglicanism, Anglican ruling class, whose members consisted of landowners, ...

— what

Frank Aiken Francis Thomas Aiken (13 February 1898 – 18 May 1983) was an Irish revolutionary and politician. He was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army, chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (1922–1969), Anti-Treaty IRA at the end of the I ...

called "every hyphenated person in the country". The agreed solution was to place items about the President elsewhere in the paper. In 1942 the government used its wartime censorship powers to remove the column altogether, on the grounds that it compromised the state's neutrality.Murphy 2016 pp.149–150

''Social and Personal''

Following the declaration of the Republic in 1949 the column ceased to mention British royalty and gradually stopped mentioning aristocracy. The name was changed to "Social and Personal". Until around 1978 it published a daily list of who met the President of Ireland in

Áras an Uachtaráin (; "Residence of the President"), formerly the Viceregal Lodge, is the List of official residences, official residence and principal workplace of the President of Ireland. It is located off Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, ...

. The reasons why it stopped doing this remain unclear; President

Patrick Hillery Patrick John Hillery (; 2 May 1923 – 12 April 2008) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the sixth president of Ireland from December 1976 to December 1990. He also served as vice-president of the European Commission and Europea ...

suggested that the paper stopped publishing the information it was being supplied, while the paper said it had stopped receiving information from the Áras. Today the column only appears occasionally, to enable prominent families to announce forthcoming nuptials, and frequently goes for weeks without being included in the paper. Whereas the column once received extensive space every day, it now occupies only one or two inches of space on the "

Letters to the Editor A letter to the editor (LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through conventional mai ...

" page if space allows, and often only contains one entry.

References

Sources

* {{cite book, last=Murphy, first=Brian, title=Forgotten Patriot: Douglas Hyde and the Foundation of the Irish Presidency, year=2016, publisher=Collins Press, isbn=9781848892903, chapter=The Foundations of Presidential Precedence , pages=120–159 The Irish Times Monarchy of Ireland Upper class culture in Europe Social history of Ireland