Before the National Lottery was established, the most popular way to have an occasional flutter was to buy a Sweeps ticket.
The Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake was a private company established by the Irish Free State government in the 1930s and licensed to run a lottery to raise money for hospitals.
Tickets were drawn from large rotating metal drums by uniformed nurses during highly- publicised draws at the RDS in Dublin. The Irish Sweeps offered big prizes and was extremely popular for a few decades before being wound up and replaced, in the 1980s, by the National Lottery.
The management team who ran the Sweeps became very wealthy. Among them was Joe McGrath (1887 –1966), a veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising and later a TD. He amassed a personal fortune from the venture which he and his family used to create a business empire that at one time comprised Waterford Glass and the Irish Glass Bottle Company.
McGrath, who also owned a stud farm, lived in Cabinteely House in south Dublin. He spent some of his fortune on a collection of antiques which is now being sold at Mealy’s Auctioneers.
The items have come from the estate of McGrath's son, Joseph McGrath Jnr, and his wife, Patricia, formerly of Curragh Grange, Co Kildare, and include Irish paintings, furniture by Hicks of Dublin, a large quantity of silver and unique pieces relating to the family and its racing and business affairs.
The items are included in a three-day auction entitled Collections and Estates of Aesthetes beginning on Tuesday at the saleroom in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny.
A "totally unique Irish silver model of a blindfolded woman over a Hospital Sweepstake rotating drum" inscribed: "To Joe from one of the 'Drummers'" – estimated at €2,000-€3,000 – is an intriguing memento of modern Irish social history.
Another item is a 3kg silver tray commemorating a racehorse called Windsor Slipper – a famous horse owned by McGrath that was retired to stud in 1943 – estimated at €2,000-€3,000.
There is also a sundial inscribed with the names of – and which can show the time in – dozens of Irish towns (€1,500-€2,500). George Mealy described it as “extremely unusual” as he “never saw one with Irish towns before”.
A very rare pair of 19th century Irish glass claret jugs each etched with a portrait of the famous greyhound Master McGrath is also part of the auction (€750-€1,250).
Other interesting items in the sale include an art nouveau gold and enamel Egyptian Revival brooch in the form of a scarab beetle (€2,500-€3,500); a silver cup awarded to a member of the Trinity College Officer Training Corps (Lt CL Robinson) for "the defence of Trinity College" during the 1916 Rising (€2,000-€3,000); and a letter and some photographs of her January 1966 family holiday in Gstaad sent by Jackie Kennedy to an American diplomat in Paris (€200-€400).
Collections and Estates of Aesthetes is on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (October 21st, 22nd and 23rd) at Mealy’s Saleroom, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny from 11am daily. Viewing begins tomorrow at noon
