Taylor’s Mountain Road
The Irish administration began the year with Sir Arthur Wellesley as chief secretary, serving the lord lieutenant, Charles Lennox, fourth duke of Richmond. Wellesley’s office was at the centre of a system designed to keep order after the recent republican rebellions and during the continuing war with Napoleonic France. His attention to defence and communications in Ireland had been substantial, but his position also revealed how Irish administration was governed by imperial priorities. In February 1809 he had to defend in the House of Commons his retention of the secretaryship and its salary while absent on military service.