A very recent Irish tradition
QUESTION Why does the Taoiseach visit the US around St Patrick’s Day?
THE annual tradition of the Taoiseach visiting Washington to meet the US president and present them with a bowl of shamrock is essentially a diplomatic gesture of solidarity between Ireland and the US, and an acknowledgement of the role the Irish have had and still have in American life.
The ceremony itself has only become a yearly event since the 1990s, and took on an additional resonance as the peace process was beginning to take shape.
Initially, a diplomatic St Patrick’s Day gift of boxes of shamrock was sent every year by the State to high-ranking politicians of all stripes in Washington.
Only in 1952 was then president Dwight Eisenhower first presented with a Waterford Glass bowl of shamrock by the then Irish ambassador to the States.
Four years later, John A Costello visited the US and made the first shamrock presentation by a Taoiseach to Mr Eisenhower. This was the last time it happened – though in 1959, president Seán T O’Kelly made the presentation – until Ronald Reagan was president and Garret FitzGerald was Taoiseach.
Still, it did not become an annual event until Albert Reynolds started the ‘tradition’ when he visited Bill Clinton in the White House in 1993.
While it is essentially a symbolic occasion, the message intended to be conveyed is that Ireland continues to play a major part in the consciousness of those running the US.
However, this year, Micheál Martin will not be attending the White House in person and will instead be meeting Joe Biden virtually – a first in itself. Dan Donnelly, by email.
QUESTION The Canadian government has heavily invested in molten salt reactors. What are these?
EFFORTS to develop new sources of carbon-free energy have led to the rediscovery of molten salt reactors, a nuclear power concept introduced at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in the 1960s. This is a radical departure, using a molten salt such as uranium tetrafluoride as a coolant rather than water.
It relies on a low-pressure, hightemperature environment – 450C to 540C – for stable energy production in a highly efficient, breeder type of fission reactor.
Though still being developed, it is hoped these Generation IV reactors will be economical, safe and low emission.
Nuclear power plants generate electricity through a fissile chain reaction. Isotopes such as uranium 235 or 233, or plutonium 239, absorb a neutron and then split apart into fission products.
In that process, they generate heat and eject neutrons to initiate a chain reaction.
A moderator slows down the neutrons so they are more likely to cause another fission when they impact the fuel.
In the case of light water reactors, solid fuel rods contain the fissile material. Water surrounding the fuel acts as a moderator and coolant that carries heat to turbines to generate electricity.
In a molten salt reactor, the coolant is a salt heated above its melting point, so it is a fluid. Instead of fuel rods, the fissile material is then dissolved.
In most designs, the solution flows around graphite rods, which moderate the energy of the neutrons to support the nuclear chain reaction. Other designs include liquid or solid fuel in rods or fast reactors that do not have a moderator of any kind.
Several designs use thorium as a fuel. There is at least three times more thorium on the planet than uranium, and it’s a much cleaner fuel. Thorium waste decays in hundreds of years rather than tens of thousands.
There are, of course, many other advantages: replacing water decreases the possibility of steam explosions and the generation of flammable gas, and low-pressure operation means that there is less demand on containment.
Because they operate at a higher temperature, their steam cycle generates electricity more efficiently. Liquid fuel means there is no need to shut down the reactor to refuel during operation.
However, the biggest problem with molten salt reactors is that they can unfortunately easily corrode steel and aluminium. Dr Ken Warren, Glasgow.
QUESTION Are there known descendants of King Charles II of England’s many mistresses?
THOUGH his marriage to Catherine of Braganza was childless,
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.
Charles II had several illegitimate children by at least nine mistresses, some of whom have descendants in today’s peerage.
The Duke of Grafton was a title created in 1675 by Charles for Henry FitzRoy, his second illegitimate son by Barbara Villiers. The 12th Duke of Grafton is Henry Oliver Charles FitzRoy. Appropriately, the family name FitzRoy means ‘the child of the King’.
Louise de Kerouaille’s son Charles was created Duke of Richmond in 1675. Charles Gordon-Lennox, the 11th Duke of Richmond, Lennox, Gordon and Aubigny, is president of the British Automobile Racing Club, patron of the TT Riders Association and founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The Duke of St Albans was a title created in 1684 for the 14year-old Charles Beauclerk, 1st Earl of Burford, the king’s son by the actress Nell Gwyn. And the 14th Duke of St Albans is Murray Beauclerk. Catherine Pegge’s descendants were the Earls of Plymouth; Elizabeth Killigrew’s daughter Charlotte married the son of the Earl of Yarmouth; Lucy Walter’s son was the Duke of Monmouth, beheaded in 1685 for his attempt to overthrow his uncle James II; and actress and courtesan Moll Davis was mother to famous actress Mary Tudor.
Winifred Wells and Hortense Manzini had children, but they may have been by their husbands. It is possible Charles II had more children with other women during his time in exile.
Many of his descendants and their families served in royal households, such as the Duchess of Grafton, who was Elizabeth II’s Mistress of the Robes.