Found in a ‘junk shop’, tucked into an old book – ……- a little scrap of paper from Glasgow, Scotland – slightly stained, slightly crumpled.

It has ‘bloodless’ stories to tell.

‘The Eden’ was Cathie & Dugald Semple‘s ‘local’ restaurant.

Tissue-paper ‘Ad’ for a Glasgow, Scotland restaurant – circa 1905 – 11.5 x 11.5 cm.

It is now in the Ernest Bell Library – donated by a friend from the UK.

Directory listings of the period read –

Eden Vegetarian Restaurant, 6 Jamaica street.

Best 6d. tea in the city.

L. McCaughey.

An 1897 directory

A 1905 directory

Leonard McCaughey, his eldest children from his first marriage, Elizabeth his second wife & their children (detailed bio below) , together managed one of the first ever ‘chains’ of vegetarian restaurants. They had branches in Ireland, Scotland & England.

IT IS UNIVERSALLY ADMITTED

that to see 

VEGETARIANISM +++

PROPERLY PRESENTED

You must visit

one of the following restaurants:

Belfast: The X.L., 27 Corn Market

Dublin: The College, 3 & 4 College Street

(with HOTEL attached)

Glasgow: The Eden, 6 Jamaica Street

Leeds: The Old Bank, 28 Commercial St.

-<+>-

All under one Proprietorship

and Management.

Everything High Class, except Prices.

The Ad (above) & the mention (below) both appeared in ‘Good Health’ – April 1903.

Entire issue here as a .pdf file.

-<+>-

        It gives us pleasure to be able to recommend

the four vegetarian restaurants whose announce-

ment has appeared in GOOD HEALTH for some

time. The proprietor, Mr McCaughey, is doing a

much-needed work in demonstrating the practic-

ability of a bloodless diet. Care and cleanliness

in the preparation and handling of the food are

marked features in these restaurants, the kitchens

of which will bear inspection any time.

-<+>-

From –

‘Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-century …’ – By James Gregory – page 139.

     The McCaugheys played an important part in vegetarian activity in

Ireland and Scotland through their restaurants. Leonard McCaughey

opened the well-situated  ‘Eden’ restaurant in Jamaica Street in Glasgow.

On two floors, there were tea and coffee rooms, lavatories, and a dining

room for 200 on the first floor. Steam heaters kept the restaurant’s food

piping hot. The McCaughey’s first restaurant, in Belfast was managed by

Leonard’s wife. McCaughey and Smallman of Manchester were successful

businessmen committed to the movement and not simply commercial 

speculators. 

The McCaugheys knew how to run restaurants – plus they ran vegetarian hotels in Dublin, Ireland (Ireland was then a part of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland’ – it is now Éire ).

Irish freedom fighters, writers, poets etc. met in the McCaughey’s Dublin restaurants.

When you visited, you might have seen –

‘the bearded and spectacled features of Æ  (George William Russell) and with him, Harry Norman, Paul Gregan … and others of that small, but distinguished, group of workers and writers connected with the Irish Agricultural Organisation’.

More about old Dublin restaurants here – some notes on the history of Vegetarianism in Dublin Pt. I (1866 – 1922)

In July 1899, the McCaughey family established ‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant‘ at 3-4 College Street, Dublin.

The Irish Times, 11 September 1900

……

‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant‘ probably got a mention in James Joyce’s book Ulysses –

Read Leopold Bloom’s description of Æ aka George William Russell, coming from ‘the vegetarian’ (believed to be ‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant’), ‘a listening woman’ (possibly Lizzie Twigg aka Elis ni Chraoibhin) and a vegetarian diet.

~ His eyes followed the high figure in homespun, beard and bicycle, a listening woman at his side. Coming from the vegetarian. Only weggebobbles and fruit. Don’t eat a beefsteak. If you do the eyes of that cow will pursue you through all eternity. They say it’s healthier. Windandwatery though. Tried it. Keep you on the run all day. Bad as a bloater. Dreams all night. Why do they call that thing they gave me nutsteak? Nutarians. Fruitarians. To give you the idea you are eating rumpsteak. Absurd. Salty too. They cook in soda. Keep you sitting by the tap all night. ~

– Ulysses (Chap. 8 – Lestrygonians) – James Joyce.

……

An advertisement in The Irish Times on 2 February 1900 –

‘Vegetarian food is the coming diet’ and suggested that ‘every man and woman that has suffered from influenza should dine at the College Restaurant as the use of a pure diet is the simplest and surest cure for this woeful disease’

Another on 27 April of the same year – 

‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant is the seat of learning in the science of food. In it all can learn how to get the best food in the easiest digestible form, at the lowest cost’. ~

 – much more about the ‘Vegetarian Dublin’ – here.

The Freemans Journal, 07 March 1913

The McCaughey Restaurants Ltd. announced the opening of a ‘High-Class Vegetarian Restaurant’ at 3 and 4 College Street in an advertisement in The Irish Times of 24 May 1899. McCaughey was from Northern Ireland………. – source

.

Leonard McCaughey & family – Timeline

1839 – 40 – Leonard McCaughey, born 1839 or 1840.   His father is recorded as Thomas, a farmer from Armoy about 4 miles east of Ballymoney  in the north of Ireland.

1872 – Leonard’s first marriage was to Charlotte McClure  – on 31st August at Fisherwick Presbyterian Church Belfast.

1874 – a son – also Leonard – birth: 27 Dec 1874 Ireland (death – 1892).

1880 – in the 1911 Census we see – David McCaughey 31 “Hotel Manager” son of Leonard and Charlotte – at 8 Harcourt St. Dublin – born circa 1880.

1882 – a son – William James – probably born in 1882 (death 1911).

1890 – Irish Vegetarian Union founded – May 19th, 1890.

1890 – Charlotte died 1 June aged 48 Yrs.

1891 – Leonard married for the second time with – Elizabeth Margaret Ryan on 14th March at Knockbreda, Belfast.

1891 –  the first Vegetarian restaurant in Dublin, the ‘Sunshine Vegetarian Dining Rooms‘ opened in March. We strongly suspect that Leonard was involved in this business.

The Irish Times, 28 August 1891

1892 – a son – John Thomas was born in in Belfast (death 1978).

1892 – Leonard Jr. died aged 17 – on 18 June .

1893 – Belfast. – The third annual meeting of the Irish Vegetarian Union was held on 19th May. The meeting was afterwards addressed by Leonard McCaughey.

1893/4 – a son – George Ryan (death – 1965).

1897 – Meeting to give the – Annual Report 1897 – Irish Vegetarian Union. – Leonard McCaughey was on the Committee.

1899 – announcement of the opening of the McCaughey’s –  ‘High-Class Vegetarian Restaurant’ – at 3 and 4 College Street – in The Irish Times of 24 May.

1900 – an advertisement in The Irish Times on 2 February from Leonard & Elizabeth proclaimed that –

‘Vegetarian food is the coming diet’ and suggested that ‘every man and woman that has suffered from influenza should dine at the College Restaurant as the use of a pure diet is the simplest and surest cure for this woeful disease’ .

1900 – another advertisement in The Irish Times on 27 April noted that –

‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant is the seat of learning in the science of food. In it all can learn how to get the best food in the easiest digestible form, at the lowest cost’.

1900/1 – a daughter – Elizabeth Leonora – d.o.b.? Leonora later settled in Canada.

1901 – Leonard Snr & the family in Dublin. Leonard is a Restaurant Manager. Elizabeth is a Restaurant-Superintendent. At 114, Brighton Road (Rathmines, Dublin) – Leonard – 60, Elizabeth Margaret- 42, William James – 18(28?) – Son, John Thomas  – 8 – Son, George Ryan – 7 – Son & Elizabeth Leonora – Daughter – presumably younger than 1.

1901 – poet and editor of The Dublin Magazine Seamus O’Sullivan wrote (IT, 16 Oct 1943) about being brought to this

‘……famous and well-conducted vegetarian restaurant’ by his father in 1901 where they used to see ‘……the bearded and spectacled features of Æ and with him, Harry Norman, Paul Gregan … and others of that small, but distinguished, group of workers and writers connected with the Irish Agricultural Organisation’.

George William Russell (Æ). Credit – cultured.com

1901 (writing about circa 1901) – Irish writer James Cousins and wife Margaret Cousins (co-founder of the Irish Women’s Franchise League and All India Women’s Conference) in their joint autobiography, We Two Together (1950), described the restaurant on College Street as a:

‘….rendezvous for the literary set, of whom Æ  was the leader. We frequently joined these idealists for lunch, and later met a number of Hindu vegetarians who had come to Dublin.’

1903 – Leonard & Elizabeth were promoting 4 restaurants & a hotel. Belfast: The X.L., 27 Corn Market. Dublin: The College, 3 & 4 College Street (with HOTEL attached). Glasgow: The Eden, 6 Jamaica Street. Leeds: The Old Bank, 28 Commercial St.

1907 – the Vegetarian Society hosted a once-off restaurant at the Irish International Exhibition at Herbert Park, Dublin. Albert Broadbent of The Vegetarian Society was probably cooperating with Leonard & Elizabeth.

1911 – William James – son – died in Belfast Asylum aged 29.

1911 – the 1911 census lists Leonard as a 70-year-old hotel proprietor from Antrim living in 72.1 Harcourt Street with Elizabeth & children John Thomas, George Ryan &  Elizabeth Leonora. Leonard & Elizabeth were now the owners of – the Ivanhoe Hotel & Veg. Rest.

The book ‘Hotels in Ireland’ by Frank Corr, states that the McCaughey family owned the Ivanhoe Hotel & vegetarian restaurant on Harcourt Street, Dublin, and also the Princess Restaurant on Grafton Street.

1916 – the Easter Rising,  an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The playwright – Dr. Seamus O’Ceallaugh (Dr. Seamus O’Kelly) notes that just before the Easter Rising he was invited to a meeting in the Vegetarian Restaurant by Fenian Rory O’Connor where there was discussion about the upcoming rebellion and attempts made to decode the forged ‘Castle Document’. At least four such meetings took place.

1918 – James Joyce starts to publish ‘Ulysses’ – serialized in magazines in the US.

1918 – Dublin Brigade IRA member Michael Lynch speaks about a waiter in the restaurant who had overheard a group of Trinity College students talking about plans to set fire to the headquarters of Sinn Fein at no. 6 Harcourt Street on Armistice Night 1918. This waiter informed Sean MacMahon, Vice Commandment of the 3rd Brigade IRA, who managed to mobilise republicans at the last minute to defend it and other buildings.

1921 –  Leonard & Elizabeth now owners of The Princess Restaurant – 26 Grafton St., Dublin.

1922 – James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ is published as a book.

Ulysses – ~ On the recommendation of Ezra Pound, Margaret Andersen serialised the novel in her “Little Review” between 1918 and 1921. Although the serialisation was completed, it ultimately finished The Little Review and led to its editors being tried for obscenity. As a result of this debacle, Joyce feared that even should he be able to find a publisher, the act of serialisation and the stigma attached to the following court case would make the novel unsaleable.

It was to Sylvia Beach and her small Parisian bookshop, Shakespeare and Company that Joyce turned. Beach, like Andersen before her, had immediately seen the genius in Ulysses, and wrote to her mother that she might be soon to publish “the most important book of the age”.

It was decided to publish 1000 copies by subscription. 100 copies on Holland handmade paper (signed), 150 copies on vergé d’Arches and 750 copies on linen. A further 20 copies were produced, unwrappered on mixed paper and marked, “press copy”. A printer was found in Maurice Darantière of Dijon and publication was planned for October.

The printing process was not nearly as straightforward as anticipated, due in part to Joyce’s continual rewriting of the text and his and Beach’s perfectionism in the printing process. The publication date was continually moved back and eventually 2 February 1922, Joyce’s birthday, was settled upon. But even then only two copies were ready, sent by Darantière via the Paris-Dijon express. One was put on display at Shakespeare and Company and the other taken, unopened by Joyce, to his birthday celebrations at the Italian restaurant, Ferrari’s.

“He had brought with him a package containing his copy of Ulysses, and placed it under his chair. Nora remarked that he had thought about the book for sixteen years, and spent seven years writing it. Everyone asked to see it opened, but he seemed to shrink from producing it. After the dessert he at last untied the parcel and laid the book on the table. It was bound in the Greek colours – white letters on a blue field – that he considered lucky for him, and suggesting the myth of Greece and Homer, the white island raising from the sea. There was a toast to the book and its author which left Joyce deeply moved” (Richard Ellman – James Joyce). ~

1922 – ‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant’ in Dublin closes. It had remained open for 23 years.

1923 – George Ryan – son – emigrated to the USA in 1923. He died in New York of a brain haemorage in 1965.

1926 – Leonard Snr. died in Belfast – at 27 Cornmarket, above his X.L. Restaurant – aged 86 Years – on 26 December.

1950 – The X.L. in Cornmarket, Belfast ceased trading. It had started in about 1895. It was the longest-lasting of the McCaughey family’s restaurants.

Sources

1) The Ernest Bell Library’s archives

2) http://comeheretome.com/2013/05/21/some-notes-on-history-of-vegetarianism-in-dublin-pt-i-1866-1922/

3) http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/ancestors/thread/1290960?page=0

4) http://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=tfschafart

5) http://www.ivu.org/history/societies/ireland.html

6) http://www.ivu.org/history/vfu/1897-report-irish.html 

The McCaugheys were Irish Presbyterians. The magazine ‘Good Health’, in which they advertised, was an Adventist vegetarian & teetotal / prohibitionist publication.  A .pdf file – Adventist Vegetarian History.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The Ernest Bell Library – we already have more than 300 pieces of Ernest Bell’s own writings – there are currently more than 2,000 items in the library.

If anyone would like more information, please send an email to: – 

humanitarianleague (at) outlook (dot) com 

– or message me through HappyCow – 

http://www.happycow.net/blog/author/JohnnySensible/

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