One of the most remarkable objects to enter a public collection anywhere was obtained at auction by the National Museum of Ireland thanks to a grant of €10,000 by the Friends. From the darker side of our history, it is an inscribed gold medal which was presented in 1798 by the Guild of Merchants in Dublin to one Thomas Reynolds, in gratitude for what it described as his “truly honourable and important services”. Reynolds was an informer and the service he rendered was treachery: his betrayal to the Dublin Castle authorities of 16 of his friends, leaders of the 1798 Rebellion, among them Oliver Bond and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, leading to their deaths.
Our donation of this unique object to the Museum is a reminder that although the FNCI is well known for its long history of giving works of art to Ireland’s public collections, another of our aims is to acquire objects of historical importance or interest for the country.
Indeed, because nowadays the price of most works of art is beyond our very limited financial resources, we have in recent years acquired, at considerably less cost, a number of important manuscripts and objects which are part of our history and would otherwise be lost to the nation.
