Irish Coins & Historical Medals

Flax Improvement Society for Ireland, a silver award medal by R. Neill, Belfast, Hibernia seated, indicating paddle-steamer left, factory at right, two workers in foreground, rev. wreath, engraved “In Commemoration of the Visit of Her Majesty Queen Victoria & H.R.H. Prince Albert to the Exhibition of Flax & Linen Fabrics in the Linen Hall, Belfast, on the 11th Augt. 1849”, edge named (worn by sir r.a. o’donnell bart. a vice president), 48mm (cf. DNW M6, 1010). Very fine and very rare; with contemporary wide loop for suspension £200-£260

Sir Richard Annesley O’Donnell (1808-78), a Vice President of the Royal Belfast Flax Society, was a member of the committee that welcomed Queen Victoria during her official visit to the Linen Hall, Belfast, on 11 August 1849. The visit was extensively reported in the newspapers of the day. A lengthy doctoral thesis ‘The Expansion and Decline of the O’Donnell Estate, Newport, Co Mayo, 1785-1852’, is available online. In order to provide his tenants with a source of income, Sir Richard encouraged them to grow flax as a cash crop in addition to their subsistence crop of potatoes. Though initially the experiment met with some success, Sir Richard’s attempt to improve the finances of his tenants ultimately failed as a result of the economic collapse brought on by the Great Famine of 1845-9. Between the years 1841 and 1851 the population of the O’Donnell estates declined by 46%, as a result of disease, starvation and emigration, bankrupting the O’Donnell family. The O’Donnell Baronetcy became extinct following the death of Sir Richard’s son, Sir George Glendining O’Donnell, in 1889