Posted by Stephen Moran on June 29, 2004 at 17:21:18:

In Reply to: Irish Crown Jewels posted by Murrisk on June 28, 2004 at 23:42:55:

This is all the info I could find:

The Irish Crown Jewels, then valued at £50,000, were discovered to be missing from the safe in which they were kept in Dublin Castle on 6 July 1907. The stolen jewels, including the Star and Badge of the Order of St. Patrick, were never recovered, nor was anyone convicted of the theft. The King, head of the Order, was due to visit Ireland for three days, starting on the 10th, and the jewels would have been worn by the Lord Lieutenant at a variety of functions over the three days. The Order of the Knights of St. Patrick dated back to 1783 and the insignia had come into existence in 1829 on the order of King George IV. By statutes of 1905 it had been ordered that the insignia, collars and badges be kept in the strong-room in the Office of Arms. There were seven keys to the room, held by Sir Arthur Vicars (the Ulster King of Arms), Mr. Burtchaell the Secretary, Stivey, a messenger, Mr. O'Mahoney, the office-cleaner Mrs. Farrell, Kerr the castle detective and O'Keefe a servant of the Board of Works. The loss was discovered by Stivey at around 2.15pm who had been asked by Sir Arthur to deposit a box containing a gold collar in the safe. The safe had not been picked, nor in the opinion of locksmiths, could a duplicate key have been used. Although a £1,000 reward was offered, no concrete evidence of the identity of the thief was ever found.
The Lord Lieutenant ordered a Commission of Inquiry on January 6, 1908, into the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels from a safe in Dublin Castle six months earlier. The terms of reference were "to investigate the circumstances of the loss of the Regalia of the Order of St. Patrick, and to inquire whether Sir Arthur Vicars exercised due vigilance and proper care as the custodian thereof".
The results of a Commission of Inquiry into the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels from a safe in Dublin Castle six months earlier were made public on February 1 1908. The Commission found that the Ulster King of Arms, Sir Arthur Vicars, did not show proper care of the safe keys and should have kept them "in a strong-room at his bankers" taking the keys only when necessary. The Government announced at the same time that Sir Arthur had been removed from the position. The Commission, oddly, had not investigated the theft itself, but had concentrated on whether Sir Arthur had taken proper care of the jewels.

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