Page 8 - GAHS Journal Volume 9
P. 8
CREATING A NEW STATE
Creating a New State
Dr Martin Mansergh
The following paper was presented by Dr Martin Mansergh at
th
the Seminar Dinner for the 4 Festival of History – 29 La
th
Touche Legacy Weekend in association with Greystones
Archaeological and Historical Society, Greystones Golf Club,
Saturday, 30 September 2017, at 8 pm
A
most distinguished and influential Huguenot family, the La
Touches, and the branch based in Bellevue in Delgany that
played a big part with others in the development of Greystones,
is annually commemorated. The roads up to the Golf Club,
Whitshed Road and Burnaby Road, remember other families
involved.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 involved the
tearing up of the promise of toleration made a century previously
by King Henry IV of France, himself a Huguenot till he allowed
himself to be persuaded that Paris was worth a mass. It was
probably the worst political decision made by Louis XIV
aggravated by the indefensible forcible conversion pursued by
the dragonnades, one with long-lasting negative consequences,
but that benefited the countries that took in Huguenot refugees.
It boosted the rise of Prussia under the Great Elector, and would
have been more of an asset to Ireland, if the Jacobite élite, the
Wild Geese, had not been forced shortly after in the opposite
direction.
I came across the Rt. Hon. David La Touche in many
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