Setting the Irish State Table

This year Ireland celebrates the centenary of the Easter rebellion of 1916, the event which is generally regarded as having led to Ireland’s independence six years later. Drawing on Irish government archives, this paper presents the beginnings of Irish state hospitality in the 1920s the emergence of diplomatic dining in the 1930s hosted by the Irish head of state and the first attempts to establish inventories of state owned furniture abroad. The paper then discusses how the Department of External Affairs set out to acquire a dinner service for official entertainment by the Minister of External Affairs as a showcase of Irish manufacture, ultimately establishing the material culture of the Irish state table which remains to this day.