3 i8 A HISTORY OF 



In 1864 the exhibition was exclusively Irish so far as 

 manufactures were concerned, but it included a section 

 for home and foreign machinery. This was the last of 

 the series of triennial exhibitions. The Dublin Exhi- 

 bition Palace and Winter Garden Company erected 

 the buildings at Earlsfort terrace in which an inter- 

 national exhibition was held in 1865, but the venture 

 proved disappointing as a financial speculation. For 

 various reasons the Society made no attempt to revive 

 the exhibitions, one being the fact that the horse show 

 had come into existence, and that it occupied the 

 premises at an inconvenient time. 



A committee appointed by the Council on May the 

 7th, 1885, to consider the advisability of holding an 

 international exhibition on the Society's premises at 

 Ballsbridge, reported in favour of the project, and 

 recommended that the exhibition should be held in 

 the year 1887. It was proposed to open a guarantee 

 fund and subscription list, the control and manage- 

 ment of the exhibition to remain in the hands of the 

 Council, in accordance with the charter. Six months 

 later, the Registrar reported the results of his visit to 

 exhibitions in London and Antwerp, and the committee, 

 on reconsideration, decided " that the present state of 

 the country is not such as to warrant the Society in 

 embarking in an enterprise of such magnitude and 

 importance. " Acting on this opinion, the idea was 

 abandoned. 



It was then proposed to see what could be done 

 to assist Irish industries by holding an exhibition in 

 London, and it was suggested that the building then 

 occupied by the Indo-Colonial Exhibition might be 

 obtained. Enquiries were made, and it was soon found 

 that the Society would have to undertake financial 

 responsibilities so large that they seemed out of pro- 



