146 ProceedingH of the Royal Irish Aeademi/. 



Tliat at these conTivial meetings the chaiitable ohjects associated 

 with them were by no means ignored appears fi'om the regulation that 

 the bursar should keep two accounts ; one for the Subscription Fund, 

 and the' other for the Charitable Fund ; and that after such dinner it 

 was customary to vote away in charity the earnings of the G-alley. 

 And it is certain that the Society enjoyed throughout its existence a 

 high reputation for practical benevolence. 



The meetings of the Ouzel Galley Society were held thi'oughout 

 the nineteenth century at the Commercial Buildings, and many still 

 recall these gatherings which each I^ovember were held in the open 

 square behind the Chamber of Commerce. In the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century, and for many years subsequently, the dinners 

 appear to have been held at Atwell's Tavern in Dame-street.-^ 



From the foregoing account, it is easy to understand that a society 

 of this kind must, in time, have outgrown the circumstances in which 

 it originated. Though as a benevolent association it continued to 

 serve a useful purpose, its functions as an institution for promoting 

 arbitration gradually fell into desuetude, as legal procedure adapted 

 itself more closely to the needs of the mercantile community. From 

 a printed account of awards made in each year from 1799 to 1869, it 

 appears that 364 awards, many of them dealing with matters of great 

 magnitude, were made within that period. But of these nearly two- 

 thiixls were made in the first quarter of the nineteenth centuiy. In 

 1888, accordingly, the Ouzel Galley was voluntarily wound-up and 

 dissolved by an order of the Court of Chancery, which provided for 

 the distribution of its funds, to the amount of £3300, among charitable 

 institutions connected with the city in which the Society had so long 

 flourished. 



Many citizens of Dublin must be familiar with the large painting 

 of a full-rigged ship which hangs over the door of the news-room in 

 the Chamber of Commerce, with the legend, " The Ouzel Galley," 



1 The meeting-places of the Society, as recorded in. their Transactions, throw 

 interesting light on the taverns or eating-houses of Dublin and its en'^'irons, in the 

 second half of the eighteenth century. In 1748 the Galley met in the Phoenix 

 Tavern, "Werburgh-street ; in 1751, at the Ship Tavern, Chapelizod ; in 1775, at 

 the Eose and Bottle, Dame-street ; in 1770, at the Eagle Inn, Eustace-street ; 

 in 1776, at Power's, Booterstown ; in 1796, at Harrington's, Grafton- street ; and, 

 in 1800, at Atwell's Commercial Tavern, Dame-street. In the early part of the 

 nineteenth century the favourite resorts were Leech's Eoyal Hotel, Kildare-street ; 

 Morrrison's, in Nassau-street ; the Bilton, in SackviUe-street ; and Jude's Hotel, 

 Commercial Buildings. 



