Clubs and Organisations

 The Alpine Club, the world's first mountaineering club was founded in London in 1857.

Its first President was Irishman, John Ball and James Bryce, another Irishman,  was President from 1899 to 1901, before being appointed Ambassador to the USA.

As we have seen, many of the pioneering Irish alpinists of the 19th C had been members of the AC.  It

University Club

seems that from among those living in Ireland that the first organised 'mountaineering' event was held. James Bryce, as Under Secretary of State for Ireland, had led 'his panting subordinates up the steep side of Croagh Patrick'.  If this event is discounted it was the dinner held by the Irish AC members in the University Club on St Stephen's Green, Dublin, that might qualify.  Bryce had been the President of the Alpine Club, was an important figure in Ireland's administrative establishment and was soon to be appointed as British Ambassador to the USA and the event may have been organised by his AC colleagues to celebrate this.  However, there was no Irish club or organisation involved.

ALPINE CLUB DINNER IN DUBLIN.-The first dinner of members of the Alpine Club resident in Ireland was held at the University Club, Dublin, on January 26, 1906. The members of the latter Club having invited their fellow Alpinists' to meet the Right Hon. James Bryce, ex-President of the A. C., the following party assembled to welcome him to Ireland: H. de Fellenberg Montgomery (senior member), in the chair; Sir F. J. Cullinan, C.B.; Hon. G. Fitzgerald, Rev. W. S. Green, H. Warren, G. Scriven, R. M. Barrington, Rev. P. S. Whelan, H. Synnett, W. J. Kirkpatrick, G. B. Tunstall Moore.  (Courtesy: Alpine Club).

More about these to follow.

Early Brotherhood
 members

Brotherhood of the Lug                                                                                                                Somewhat earlier another event took place that could be regarded as the inaugeration of the first 'mountain' club.  This was the foundation of the 'Brotherhood of the Lug' that took place on the summit of Lugnaquilla (The Lug), the highest mountain in Wicklow and Leinster, on March 8th 1903.  Although not claiming to be 'mountaineers', they were prodigious walkers regularly walking distances of 35 km in the Wicklow hills.  The 'cradle' of the Lug, as they called it, was the Vale View Hotel in Avoca, where they stayed overnight before their annual ascent of Lugnaquilla.  The club continues to the present time and its hiking, trekking and climbing is no longer limited to Wicklow, as it was initially, but ventures much further afield.

See IMEHS Journal Vol 4:  Peter Quinn, Ireland's Oldest Walking Club for more detail.

United Arts Club, Dublin.  It came into existence in 1907; W. B. Yeats, George “AE” Russell, Lady Augusta Gregory -  these writers, along with Ellie Duncan, Count Casimir and Countess Constance Markievicz, founded the United Arts Club.  Despite having no obvious connection with mountaineering a number of its members were enthusiastic Rock Climbers and visited North Wales to climb with the leading British alpinists of the day.  These were such people as Conor O'Brien and Page Dickenson and others.

More about these to follow.

CHA - founded in Britain in 1891 ( by Rev. T.A. Leonard) as the Co-Operative Holiday Association.
This organisation arranged 'good value' walking holidays and established hostels in England, Scotland and Wales. with the aim of encouraging people to visit and enjoy the countryside.  In 1922, James Doyle, who had holidayed with the organisation, wanted to set up a similar association in Dublin.  On writing to the HQ in England, he was given a list of 42 names from Ireland of people who had holidayed with the group, 27 of which were in Dublin.  Following an 'ad' in the Evening Mail and after writing to some, the first meeting was held on 13 Sep 1922.  About 20 attended and the first 'Ramble' was on the 21 October 1922 when they met in Rathfarnham 'a village nestling at the foot of the Dublin Mountains'.  They continued with a programme of rambles and social events, opening a hostel in Bray that had to close in the 70s.  The 2nd WW and the lack of transport affected activities and membership but the club continues today as the Countrywide Hillwalkers Association.  See here for more details.

HF stands for Holiday Fellowship and has its origins in  Lancashire when, in 1891, the Rev T.A.
Leonard starting taking young people walking on the hills. He first formed Co-operative Holidays Association (CHA) and then in 1913 he formed the Holiday Fellowship.

Early HF hikers.

 The emphasis of the organization was on healthy outdoor exercise and temperance (long since abandoned!).   The Dublin branch of Holiday Fellowship was founded in March 1930 by a small group on the south side of Dublin, The Club grew rapidly in members, including Guinness employees and every year they went to an HF center to holiday. There were many notables in the club, like Wilfred Brambell and Dr. Sheehy Skeffington. From the early days there was a programme of rambles and hikes in the mountains of Wicklow and surroundings.                                                                                                                      The club now has  no formal link with the UK company HF Holidays,  though it occasionally holidays in one of its houses.    See here for more information.

Hostel Association:  We are An Óige, the Irish Youth Hostel Association. We were founded in 1931 and ever since it has been our mission to provide safe, affordable, comfortable accommodation and experiences to the young and young at heart. Our aim is to foster an appreciation of nature and the world around us to all, be it backpackers, school groups or families. Many of the hoistels are located in remote areas and give easy access to Ireland mountain regions.

Scouting Ireland:  Scouting Ireland has its history in two legacy Scouting organisations — the Scout Association of Ireland (SAI), formerly known as the Boy Scouts of Ireland, and the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI). The former traces its roots to 1908, and the latter was founded in 1927 – both trace their legacy to Lord Baden-Powell's Scout Movement.                                                                         By 1908, the influence of Baden-Powell's Scout Movement had spread from Great Britain to Ireland. The first recorded meeting of Scouts in Ireland took place at the home of Richard P. Fortune, a Royal Naval Volunteer Reservist, at 3 Dame Street, Dublin on 15 February 1908 where four boys were enrolled in the Wolf Patrol of the 1st Dublin Troop. The earliest known Scouting event in Ireland took place in the Phoenix Park in 1908 with members of the Dublin City Boy Scouts (later Scouting Ireland S.A.I.) taking part.                                                                                                                                           In Dublin in the 1920s, two Roman Catholic priests, Fathers Tom and Ernest Farrell, followed the progress of Scouting and in  1926 the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) (Gasóga Catoilici na hÉireann) was created. CBSI would later become the largest Scout association on the island.

These organisations (other than the Alpine Club) are unlikely to consider themselves 'Mountaineering' clubs.  (It was even sugested that the AC was founded for 'gentlemen who enjoyed walking steeply uphill'! ) The CHA has designated itself a 'Rambling Club'.  However, all of them have facilitated the activity of climbing mountains among their members.

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Gerald Fitzgerald

 In the early years of the Alpine Club (founded in 1857) its membership consisted, by and large, of upper class professionals.  The law, religion, medicine and business provided the majority of members.      Gerald Fitzgerald was one such Irish member of the AC who reached the apogee of the legal profession.

John David, Gerald's father was also a prominent member of the legal profession in Ireland - a catholic, he was liberal in politics and became independent liberal MP for Ennis, Co. Clare (1852–60).  He presided over a number of important cases including the trial of the Fenian leaders (1865) and of Charles Stewart Parnell  and thirteen others for conspiracy to encourage tenant farmers to avoid paying rent. (see DIB for more details).

Aig du Telefre
(Summit Post)

Gerald was the third son of Rose Donohoe, a Dublin distillers's daughter and the father's first wife. There were ten siblings with the second wife.  Little detail is available on his early life and education but he graduated (BA) from Trinity in 1869, was called to the bar in 1871 and was county court judge for Sligo, Roscommon, Longford, Meath, Westmeath and King's Co (Offaly).

He joined the Alpine Club in 1876 and is recorded climbing the Matterhorn in 1877 with his last recorded climb in 1911.  Some of his early climbs were with F.J. Cullinan - col de Miage, Aiguille du Midi and 1st ascent of Aig du Telefre.

From 1885 he climbed frequently with Sir William Edward Davidson, another, British, 'legal eagle', with whom he made a number of ground breaking climbs.

Alpine Club

In 1906 (Jan 26th) he attended the Alpine Club's dinner

that was held by the University Club, St Stephen's Green, in Dublin, inviting its fellow 'Alpinists' to welcome the Right Hon. James Bryce (ex President of the AC) to Ireland.

It might be noted the number of Trinity graduates who undertook mountaineering while they were students or soon after graduating.  Their financial situation is likely to have been a factor but maybe, also, some aspect of their courses or the people with whom they came in contact.

Gerald died in 1913 after a distinguished legal career and a substantial range of mountaineering achievements.

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The Cullinans

 Maxwell Cormac and Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan were born in Ennis, Co Clare.  The Alpine Club states that they were brothers - sons of Dr. Patrick Maxwell Cullinan, of Harmony House, Ennis.  By another source they may have been cousins. [At the time of Griffith’s Valuation Dr P.M. Cullinan held land in the parish of Kilchreest, barony of Clonderalaw, while Michael Cullinan held six townlands in the parish of Feakle, barony of Tulla Upper. He is recorded as owning 966 acres in the 1870s. His son Frederick FitzJames Cullinan was knighted in 1897.  Landed Estates. UCG].

Maxwell, the elder, (born 1843) had a stellar academic career - Trinity College, Dublin; Christ's College, Cambridge - Fellow, Lecturer, Junior Dean and Classical Lecturer.  Called to the Bar 1869, Assistant Professor of Latin at University College London, contributed to a number of volumes on historical and classical subjects.

His Alpine career was relatively short ( AC member 1875 - 80) during which he made some impressive ascents: Adler Pass and Strahlhorn, Schwartzberg Weisstor, Rothorn, Matterhorn were his qualifying ascents.  He lived abroad after 1878 and died in Rome in 1884.

Frederick. born in 1845, was educated at Ennis College and Dublin University but became a Civil Servant in Dublin Castle at age 19.  He moved to the higher echelons of the service in London and later again in Dublin where he also became a governor of the National Gallery.  His time in London allowed him to become very active in the Alpine Club (1878-83) and he visited the Alps a number of times, making some significant ascents, often with Gerald Fitzgerald.  His last recorded climbs in the Alps were in 1885.

Alpine Club

Back in Dublin he continued his mountain activities. It is likely that he visited Wales where he planned to build a house among the mountains he loved.

Created CB in 1894, knighted in 1897 and KCB in 1913.

He accompanied Henry Hart on the 'Hart Walk' to win the wager with Richard Barrington (1886).  He remained a member of the Alpine Club and attended its dinner for members resident in Ireland in 1906 that took place at the University Club in honour of its ex-president James Bryce.

He died in 1913 and his obituary was written by his climbing partner Gerald Fitzgerald, who said: He was naturally of a very retiring disposition, but for those whom he knew intimately he had many and great attractions : he was a good climber, fast, light and safe, and always a most eventempered, unselfish, and agreeable companion. (Alpine Journal 1914 pp 194)

One might ask what was the stimulus that sparked their first interest in climbing mountains.

See Frank Nugent's In search of Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers for further details of both.

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James Bryce

 Politician, diplomat, jurist, political scientist, historian and mountaineer, James Bryce was a man of many parts. 

           

Born in a small terraced house in Arthur Street, Belfast, on 10th May 1838. He spent the first eight years of his life at his grandfather's residence on the shores of Belfast Lough.  At age eleven he climbed Trostan from Cushendall and claimed it was the birth and growth of his 'lifelong passion for mountain climbing'.   His schooling and academic career were extensive (see here for details).  He was widely honoured, receiving the order of merit (1907) and honorary degrees from thirty-one universities, and was president of the British Academy (1913–17). 

Bryce became a great mountain walker and climber, and his love of both activities was closely related to his interest in the natural world. In his early youth he spent much of his time in the mountains of Ireland and Scotland.   Bryce’s notable experiences of mountain landscape combined with a particular environmentalist sensibility and political liberalism to shape his pioneering ideas about landscape preservation. His mountaineering was important to his personal identity and to his practice as an historian. Bryce’s ideas about history were influenced by an environmentalist perspective on the world, gained through on-foot experience of it.

A slim, wiry man of medium height with a crisp purposeful walk and piercing deep-set eyes, Bryce exuded a sense of energy, liveliness, and movement; his pursuit of knowledge was incessant, his interests ranging over geology, botany, history, politics, law, and philosophy. He carried his great learning lightly and was happy with life's simple pleasures: smoking his pipe, reading, a good walk, or a brisk swim.

N Face Mt Bryce. Wikipedia

From 1862, when he spent a semester in Heidelberg University, he climbed the classics of Switzerland and Italy including Monte Rossa, Streckhorn Monte Pelmo and Marmolata. In 1866, with Leslie Stephen, he climbed in the Carpathians (Monte Csalho).  In 1872 he was in Iceland but seems not to have been impressed by the mountains there - 'in Switzerland....the difficulty is getting to the top of your peak. In Iceland it is getting to its bottom', requiring long , tedious journeys.  In 1873 he was in the Pyrenees, climbed with Henry Russell, and climbed Maladetta, Vignemale, Pic de Nethou and Canigou.  In 1876 he was the first European to climb Mount Ararat in Turkey.  In 1878 he was in Tatras in Carpathia and climbed a number of summits.  Elected to membership of the Alpine Club in 1879 and its president from 1899 to 1901 (in John Ball's footsteps).  In 1889 he was instrumental in the formation of the Cairngorm Club, the oldest and one of the largest hillwalking and climbing clubs in Scotland.

Mt Bryce. Wikipedia

As a politician, he was involved in many of the issues of the day - Irish Home Rule, education questions, trade unionism, and was regarded as 'the most accomplished man in the commons'. 1884 saw the introduction of his Access to Mountains (Scotland) Bill - to allow people to walk freely over uncultivated ground. In 1905 he became Chief Secretary for Ireland, introduced a number of commissions of enquiry. Even got himself out on the Irish hills 'leading his panting subordinates up the steep sides of Croagh Patrick or Craughan' (Douglas Freshfield).  He resigned in 1907, disappointed that his proposals had been rejected by Nationalists and took up position as British Ambassador to the USA.  He had been there earlier (1883) when he climbed Mt Rainier and visited Hawaii, ascending Mauna Loa (4,168m) and Kilauea (1,189m).  He used this opportunity to travel widely, visiting South America, Cook Islands, Australia and New Zealand.

He was the author of numerous books and articles on a variety of subjects; politics, law, history, education and travel.  Some of his climbing exploits feature in his travel writing but he published nothing that related solely to his mountaineering.

For details of his travels and climbs see:  Alpine Club Register  (Vol 3, p39) and  Frank Nugent's In search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers for more details.

Bryce Canyon in Utah is not named in his honour, but for Ebenezer Bryce.

Mount Bryce in the Canadian Rockies was named in his honour by J Norman Collie in 1898 - the 15th highest peak in British Columbia.

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People involved (a list with links)

The following are some of the people involved with mountains, mainly during the 19th Century.  There will be further additions to the list in due course.

 John Ball                                                                1 Mary Burtchell

 Charles Barrington                                                 2 Susan Gavan Duffy

 Richard Barrington                                                 3 Elizabeth Hawkins-Whithed

 James Bryce                                                           4 Elizabeth Le Blond

 Edmund Burke                                                       5 Mrs Main

 Arthur David Mc Cormick                                      6 Mary Tighe

 Richard Cotter                                                         7 Beatrice Tomasson  

Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan                                     8 Louisa Tyndall

Maxwell Cormac Cullinan                                         9. Frederica Plunkett                                                  

 Darby Field                                                                                                                        

Tom Fitzpatrick  

Robert Fowler                                                         

Robert James Graves

William Spottswood Green

Ewart Grogan

 Henry Chichester Hart

Brian Merriman

John Palliser

Richard Pococke

Anthony Adams Reilly

Henry Russell

Henry Swanzy

John Tyndall

Buck Whaley

Arthur Oliver Wheeler

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Outside the Alps

Bryce.  Wikipedia

 The Golden Age of Alpinism is generally agreed to have ushered in a sustained period of mountain climbing in the Alps that made fashionable the idea of mountaineering as a sporting activity.  In the period between 1854 and 1865 thirty six summits higher than 4,000m (13,000 ft) were first climbed, 31 of them by British parties and their guides: we have seen that a significant number of the climbers were Irish.  

A notable feature of the people undertaking this activity was that they were wealthy.  It required substantial financial resources to travel to the Alps, spend at least a couple of weeks there and to hire the necessary porters and guides to undertake expeditions that may have lasted for a number of days.  John Tyndall's initial foray to the mountains may have been an exception because he 'got by very cheaply' but that was before he did 'serious' climbing.

The local people who climbed summits did so mainly at the behest of the 'wealthy tourists' who employed them as guides and porters because their knowledge and experience gained through hunting and other activities.

Russell. Wikipedia

Cotter

Many of the 'summiteers' wrote of the experiences and the result was that  the interest in climbing mountains spread to many other regions in the years following the Golden Age.  Some of the Irish who were involved in the second half of the 19th Century were the following and not all were wealthy:

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Richard Cotter in North America.

James Bryce in many places

Henry Russell in the Pyrenees.

William Spotswood Green in Canada and New Zealand.

More about all these to follow.