The RHSI began with a meeting held on 30 September 1816 at the Rose Tavern, Donnybrook, Dublin. A group of estate gardeners met to drink beer and to worry about “the art of gardening falling away and rapidly declining”. Resolving to exchange expertise and new ideas, these men (they were all men) set up the Horticultural Society of Ireland for gardeners who had served their time and were ‘of good moral conduct’. The RHSI was distinguished throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for its social cachet (as the list of Presidents below illustrates) and it focused on Shows and Exhibitions. The modern RHSI, a mixture of amateur and professional gardeners, continues to be committed to education.
RHSI Presidents
1830 - 1837 Nathaniel, 2nd Earl of Leitrim
1838 - 1874 Augustus, 3rd Duke of Leinster
1874 - 1877 Charles, 4th Duke of Leinster
1877 - 1893 Gerald, 5th Duke of Leinster
1894 - 1915 Arthur, Lord Ardilaun
1915 - 1945 Geoffrey, 4th Marquess of Headfort
1945 - 1948 Sir Frederick Moore
1948 - 1949 Robert Lloyd Praeger
1950 - 1952 Phyllis, Lady Moore
1953 - 1955 G. O. Sherrard
1956 - 1958 Richard Grove Annesley
1959 - 1969 Michael, 6th Earl of Rosse
1970 - 1973 W, Morris Hutton
1973 - 1978 Ralph J. Walker
1978 - 1983 Sidney Maskell
1983 - 1988 Keith Lamb
1988 - 1993 P. A. X. Hackett
1993 - 1998 Rita Rutherford
1998 - 2001 George A. F. Harrison
2001 - 2006 Maria Prendiville
2006 - 2011 Maeve Kearns
2011 - 2019 Robert Myerscough
2019 - 2022 Brenda Branigan
2022 - (2025) Peter S. Harrison