A chummy mummy. . .
QUESTION In the late Fifties, I visited St Michan’s Church, Dublin, where you were allowed to shake hands with skeletons in the crypt. Is this still allowed? ST MICHAN’S was built in 1095 to serve the remaining Vikings, most of whom had been ejected earlier that century.
Michan is of unknown origin, possibly Danish, but some argue that he was an Irish martyr and confessor, a native of Dublin. The church was rebuilt in 1686, and nothing of the original building remains.
Beneath the church are five long burial vaults containing the mummified remains of many of Dublin’s most influential families of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and mummified corpses whose coffins have rotted around them. They are thus on display, although in only two crypts now.
There are several theories as to why the corpses are so well-preserved. One is that the limestone floor creates the dry environment perfect for mummification. Another is that St Michan’s was built on former swamp land and that methane gas is acting as a preservative. Other theories involve the presence of oak in the soil, or the church’s building materials.
While many coffins are strewn about, part decayed, revealing a hanging arm or leg, the centrepieces of the exhibit are four complete mummified corpses displayed together with no lids on their coffins.
St Michan’s has a particularly entertaining tour guide who introduced us to the four: there’s ‘the thief’ who is missing parts of both feet and a hand, possibly cut off as a punishment, who later became a respected citizen or possibly even a priest.
There is a small female corpse in a holy posture, known as ‘the nun’ and another larger female mummy dubbed ‘ the unknown’. Set apart from these is the star of the piece, the crusader.
Though almost certainly apocryphal, the story goes that he was a soldier who died in the Crusades and was carried back to his home church.
The crusader was 6ft 6in, a giant back then, and his legs have been broken and folded under him to fit him into his small coffin. His hand stretches out slightly, and it was this that visitors were once encouraged to shake. This is not allowed now, though you can gently touch the skin if you are careful. The crypt also holds the coffins of the Sheare brothers, Irish lawyers and members of the Society of United Irishmen, hanged, drawn and quartered following the 1798 Rebellion.
Others in there are mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, the many Earls of Kenmare and, supposedly — although others claim him, too — the remains of Robert Emmet, the Irish rebel killed by the British in 1803.
At just €4 entry it is a good, if macabre, way to spend a wet afternoon. Natalie Rhodes, Manchester.
QUESTION Why does the Speaker hand over to the Deputy Speaker for the Budget speech? THE role of Deputy Speaker is historically linked to that of the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which initiated proposals for raising taxation.
The post of Chairman of Ways and Means dates from Parliament’s distrust of the Speaker in the 16th and 17th centuries when the Crown was able to ensure that its preferred candidate was elected to the Commons chair.
The Speaker acted as a link between Parliament and the King, and was often viewed with suspicion. He was not regarded as an appropriate person to chair debates on taxation.
So from 1689, following the declaration of William and Mary’s Bill of Rights, which sets out the rights of Parliament and prohibits royal interference, the House resolved that whenever it debated ‘ways and means’, it would turn itself into ‘a committee of the whole House’ to be chaired by one of its own rather than the Speaker.
The first permanent Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means was Whig politician Richard Hampden, who also chaired its sister committee, the Committee of Supply. Before 1855, there was no provision for a regular Deputy Speaker, and the absence of the Speaker was a major inconvenience at a time when Parliament was sitting for eight or nine hours a day — if the Speaker was absent, no business could be undertaken. Parliament decided this could be avoided by appointing a specific MP as Deputy Speaker and combined this role with that of Chairman of Ways and Means because: ‘The Chairman of Ways and Means is familiar with the proceedings of the House and he is accustomed to preside and preserve order in proceedings in committees of the whole House.’
The first person to hold the post was Conservative Henry FitzRoy in 1855.
The official role of Chairman of Ways and Means was abolished in 1967 in moves to simplify the financial procedures of the House, but the Deputy Speaker continues to preside over the Budget as a matter of tradition. Benjamin Armstrong,
Bulmer, Essex.
QUESTION Where does the expression ‘going like the clappers’ come from? FURTHER to the earlier answer, I live not far from a spur of the Chilterns called Sharpenhoe Clappers, named after the French word clapier, Latin claperius, meaning rabbit warren. This makes me wonder whether the expression ‘going like the clappers’ refers to the well-known fecundity of the leporine species!
John Hockey, Edlesborough, Bucks.
QUESTION Are there any countries where the coins have a full face view of the monarch or president, rather than a profile? FURTHER to the earlier answer, Christ and saints on coins are always depicted in full face view. There are myriad examples from the golden age of Byzantium. The
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