The theft of the Irish Crown Jewels has never been solved.
Dublin Police(Life time: 1907), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
It was supposed to be the central moment of King Edward VII's impending visit to Ireland; at a ceremony in Dublin Castle in July, 1907 he would use the insignia of the Order of St Patrick--otherwise known as the Irish Crown Jewels--to invest a Knight into the order.
But it was not to be. Days before the monarch set out on his Irish visit, the Jewels would vanish from a sealed safe in the castle, in what has been interpreted since as either incompetent stewardship, a daring heist, or a bold republican attempt to embarrass the British administration in Ireland.
Many theories have arisen in the century and more since the theft, but the question of who stole the Irish Crown Jewels has never been answered and they remain missing.
The Jewels
The Order of St Patrick was established in the late 1700's, and it was conceived as an Irish companion organisation to the other two chivalric orders in the United Kingdom at the time--England's Order of the Garter and the Scottish Order of the Thistle.
The Jewels were crafted by Rundell, Bridge and Company and were presented to the Order in 1831. Consisting of a star and a badge of emeralds, rubies and diamonds from Brazil, the insignia were to be worn on all formal occasions by the Irish Lord Lieutenant--or Viceroy--and when new Knight Companions were appointed to the Order.
The Jewels were kept in Dublin Castle, and by 1905 they were under the supervision of the Ulster King of Arms, along with several ceremonial "collars" belonging to deceased Knight Companions.
In July 1907, the Ulster King of Arms was one Sir Arthur Vicars.
The Theft
Vicars had been in the role since 1893, but there were three other individuals who served under him in various--mostly honorary roles--who also had access to the Irish Crown Jewels. These were Francis Bennett Goldney, Pierce Gun Mahony, and Francis Shackleton.
Francis Shackleton was the brother of the famous Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, and was a housemate of Vicars at the time of the theft. Mahony was Vicars's nephew.
The Jewels were kept in the Bedford Tower in Dublin Castle, but the safe in which they were stored had been moved while renovations were being made. When they were finished, it became clear that the workers had not been made aware that the safe was to be moved back in, as the entrance to the room was no longer big enough for the box to pass through. The decision was made to leave the safe in the Library of Ulster's Office.
There were seven keys to this room, which were held by Vicars--as the Office holder--and various members of his staff including Goldney, Mahony and Shackleton. There were only two keys to the safe, however, and these were both in Vicars's possession.
Ulster King of Arms Sir Arthur Vicars.
Credit: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress)
On Wednesday, July 3rd 1907, a cleaner informed Vicars that the Library door was opened. Vicars was said to have replied casually, with only passing interest in what was clearly a serious breach of security. On Saturday, July 6th the same cleaner reported the same incident, and received the same reply. Later that day, Vicars gave a messenger a Knight's collar to put in the safe along with the Jewels--another highly unusual development--but when the messenger opened the safe, the Irish Crown Jewels were missing.
The Dublin Metropolitan Police inspected the safe and found it had not been forced open, concluding that it therefore must have been opened with a key.
The Jewels, however, were not in the possession of Vicars or his associates and could not be located.
The Investigation
In January of 1908 a commission was established by the office of the Lord Lieutenant to investigate the disappearance and to decide whether Arthur Vicars had been negligent in his duties.
Vicars's half-brother Pierce Mahony--also the father of Pierce Gun Mahony, one of the other men with access to the Jewels--had pushed for the viceregal commission in order to clear Vicars of any wrongdoing. Oddly, Vicars himself refused to give evidence, as did his office clerk and his office typist.
All of the other men who were under suspicion gave their testimony to the commission, including Mahony (junior), Goldney and Shackleton.
Goldney and Shackleton successfully established that they were not in Ireland at all between June 11th and July 6th. Mahony had been present at Dublin Castle in the period immediately leading up to the disappearance of the Jewels, but despite repeated probing into the level of access he had to keys, his testimony shed little light on what might have happened.
Goldney's testimony, on the other hand, proved interesting. It had already been established by the commission that Vicars was quite fond of showing the Irish Crown Jewels to anybody who expressed even a passing interest in them, and in the course of their inquiries the commission learned from Goldney that on one occasion he had entered a room where Vicars was showing the insignia to some 'strange gentlemen'.
Upon further investigation it turned out that these gentlemen were connected to Vicars through Shackleton. "Frank" Shackleton had been in some financial trouble, it emerged, and had managed to persuade his housemate Vicars to guarantee two bills for him. When it became clear that Vicars could not in fact afford to cover these bills either, it became necessary to consult some moneylenders that Shackleton knew. Goldney implied that it these lenders who had been present in the room with Vicars that day.
'A Man of Very Bad Character'
Even though Sir Arthur Vicars had the two keys to the safe from which the Jewels were taken, suspicion in the case quickly came to rest on Frank Shackleton. This was largely due to some suggestions from Goldney (as above) and direct accusations by Vicars himself.
Shackleton always denied these charges, and was adamant that he had nothing to do with the theft when he gave his own testimony to the commission. He admitted that he had had money problems, and was also willing to concede that he had turned to Vicars for financial help, but baulked at the notion that he had anything to do with the robbery of the Jewels. Shackleton's testimony was also peppered with various references to high-profile individuals with whom he was socially acquainted, which subsequent readers of the transcripts have identified as brazen "name-dropping".
Francis Shackleton (centre) arriving at the viceregal commission to give his testimony.
Credit: IrishCentral
Pressed on why he had received a letter from Vicars in August, 1907, in which Vicars had written '(n)ow that you know the whereabouts of the Jewels...I hope that you have told Mr Kane everything calculated to facilitate matters', Shackleton claimed that Vicars was referring to a newspaper report that had mistakenly suggested that the Jewels had been found, and reiterated that he had no hand in the theft.
The 'Mr Kane' referred to in the letter was a Chief Inspector of the Dublin Metropolitan Police who had also given evidence to the commission. Kane was passionate in his defence of Shackleton--which was strange, as he offered that defence without providing any evidence to support it. Kane also maintained that the events of July 6th were a clear set-up by Vicars to "reveal" the theft, implying heavily that it was Vicars himself who had orchestrated the crime.
Acknowledging that various sources had identified Shackleton as the main culprit in the theft, the commission nonetheless concluded that he had been a co-operative witness during the investigation and had found no evidence that he had stolen the Jewels. The commission concluded that Vicars had probably been negligent in his duties, and recommended his dismissal. Pierce Mahony--Vicars's half-brother--later released to the press official correspondence which stated that, while he could not be blamed for the theft per se, Vicars was guilty of having introduced to his office a 'man of very bad character'. It is widely assumed that this was a reference to Frank Shackleton.
The Plot Thickens
A year after the commission failed to solve the mystery but succeeded in disgracing Arthur Vicars, a sensational article appeared in the Irish-American newspaper Gaelic American.
The author of the piece was Bulmer Hobson, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and his source was none other than Pierce Mahony.
Angered by the treatment of his half-brother, Mahony claimed that Dublin Castle prior to the theft had been the location of drunken orgies conducted by a ring of secretly homosexual functionaries, and that such wild nights had seen all kind of pranks including the removal of the Irish Crown Jewels for days at a time.
Mahony alleged that Shackleton and a previously unknown individual called Captain Richard Gorges had witnessed the removal of the Jewels and developed a plan to repeat the prank with the aim of keeping the insignia for themselves.
Mahony also held that the authorities knew full well that it was Shackleton and Gorges who had stolen the Irish Crown Jewels, but were discouraged from pursuing the matter out of fear that the pair would "out" several high-profile individuals in response. Mahony suggested that was the real significance of Shackleton's repeated references to men not connected to the case during his testimony, and indicated that the authorities had contented themselves with ordering both Shackleton and Gorges out of the country rather than risk the scandal.
Hobson would later claim to have met Gorges himself, who added that Vicars had been duped into thinking that the theft was just another prank, and that was why his response to the cleaner on Wednesday, July 3rd had been so casual. When it became clear that the jewels would not in fact be returned, Vicars had opened the door on July 6th himself and then later sent his messenger to open the box so that somebody else could report the crime. It was an act of desperation, as Vicars knew he also could not identify Shackleton and Gorges as the thieves; not only was he directly involved in their removal, but it is also quite likely that Vicars--who led an unconventional lifestyle by the standards of the day--was gay.
A vintage Ratner safe, similar to the one used to store the Jewels at Dublin Castle.
Credit: PicClick UK
Gorges also apparently told Hobson that he and Shackleton had got the Jewels to Amsterdam, where they were stripped and sold. Shackleton, who was definitely not in Ireland at the time, had help in the person of Francis Goldney. However, as he was also not in the country at the time of the theft, it is unclear as to who exactly took the Jewels--unless it was Gorges himself.
While plausible, none of this has ever been proven and the Shackleton family vehemently denies Frank's involvement.
Aftermath
But both Frank Shackleton and Richard Gorges did end up in prison--Shackleton for fraud and Gorges for murder. Shackleton changed his name to Frank Mellor upon his release and died in England in 1941; Gorges apparently told everybody that he met in prison about his involvement with the Irish Crown Jewels, but few believed him. He was hit by a train and killed in 1944.
Goldney was shot while hunting in 1914. There were rumours that it was not accidental. Goldney was subsequently revealed to have been a habitual thief and possible kleptomaniac.
The theft of the Irish crown jewels has inspired novels, graphic novels and countless tall tales. Repeated claims of republican involvement surface but generally do not hold up to scrutiny.
Sir Arthur Vicars was shot and killed by the IRA in the south-west of Ireland during the War of Independence. It is not known if he was an innocent victim or fell foul of the IRA by informing British authorities of their activities. His last will and testament was deemed too incendiary to be read in public at the time, and did not see the light of day until 1976. In it, Vicars had written:
'I might have had more to dispose of had it not been for the outrageous way I was treated by the Irish Government over the loss of the Irish Crown Jewels in 1907, backed up by the late King Edward VII whom I had always loyally and faithfully served, when I was made a scapegoat to save other departments responsible and when they shielded the real culprit and thief Francis R Shackleton (brother of the explorer who didn't reach the South Pole). My whole life and work was ruined by this cruel misfortune and by the wicked and blackguardly acts of the Irish Government.'
If Frank Shackleton did not steal the Irish Crown Jewels, he certainly succeeded in creating a lasting grudge.
If the Jewels were found today they would be worth approximately €4 million.
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