cover / William Smith O'Brien, 1854

Gold presentation cup and cover, gold. Presented to William Smith O'Brien on his release from confinement in Van Diemen's Land. Made by emigrant Irish silversmiths, the Hackett brothers in Melbourne, 1854. Financed by Irish Australians, including miners. This cup, made from Australian gold, was made for William Smith O'Brien (1803 - 1864), an Irish Nationalist who was transported to Hobart in 1848. A leader of the Young Ireland Movement, Smith O'Brien was charged with high treason for his part in an unsuccessful rebellion to overturn British rule in Ireland in 1848. When he was granted a conditional pardon in 1854, Irish settlers in Victoria presented him with the design of this fine cup (it had not been possible to complete the cup before O'Brien's departure for Europe). The cup was probably sent to Ireland about 1856.;