Patrick Delany

Life
?1685-1768 [occas. var Delaney; signing himself “Pat” in letters to Mrs Pendarves (Mary Delany)]; Church of Ireland [Anglican ]clergyman, fellow of TCD and tutor; Swift called him ‘the most eminent preacher we have’; appt. chancellor of Christ Church, 1727 and prependary of S. Patrick’s Cathedral, 1729; Chanc. St. Patrick’s, 1730; moved to a 12 yr. old house in Glasnevin, called Delville, 1734, and spent 14 of 25 ensuing years in Ireland; fnd. The Tribune, 1738; appt. Dean of Down, 1744; issued Observations on Orrery’s “Remarks” [ ..., &c..] (1754), pseud. as “J. R.”; subscribed for 6 copies of Dermod O’Connor’s translation of Keating’s History of Ireland (1723); d. 6 May; bur. in the garden at Delville, being that part of it which was later added to Glasnevin Cemetery. RR CAB ODNB PI DIW DIB OCEL FDA OCIL

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Works

Revelations Examined with Candour, Vol. I (1732), Do., Vol. II (1734), Vol. III (1763).
Reflections upon Polygamy (1738), Do. [2nd edn., with preface (1739).
An Historical Account of the Life and Writings of King David, Vol. I (1740), and Do., Vols. II & III (1742).
Social Duties of Life, [15 sermons] (1744), Do. [2nd edn.] (1747) [add. give more on Vices].
Divine Original of Tythes (1748).
A Humble Apology for Christian Orthodoxy (1761), tract.
Eighteen Discourses (1766), many republished in Family Lectures (1791).

Miscellaneous

A letter to Dean Swift, Esq.; on his Essay upon the life, writings, and character of Dr. J. Swift, by the author of the Observations on Lord Orrery’s remarks, &c. (London: W. Reeve at Shakespear’s Head [...] and A. Linde [...] 1755), 31, [1]p.; 8o. [Vide Deane Swift].

Reprints

Robert Hogan, ed. [assoc. editor, Donald C. Mell], The Poems of Patrick Delany: comprising also poems about him by Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan, and other friends and enemies (Delaware UP [2006]), 215pp. [24cm.]

See also The Tribune, 1737 [fnd. & ed. by Delany; 20 issues]; The Humanist 1757 [15 issues; in which he denounces docking horses tails].

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Criticism
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, p.63-70; also parts of the account of Mrs Delany, in Constantia Maxwell, Strangers in Ireland (1954); Mrs Esther Morris, ‘The Delanys of Delville’, in Dublin Historical Record, 9, 4 (Dec. 1947-Feb.1948), pp.105-116; Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., ‘Swift’s Friend, Dr Patrick Delany’, in Eire-Ireland, 5.3 (Autumn 1970), 53-62.

[ See Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica - Biographical Dictionary of Irish Worthies [2 vols.], Vol. II (1821) - as attached. ]

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Commentary

Jonathan Swift on Dr Delaney’s Villa*
WOULD you that Delville I describe? Believe me, Sir, I will not gibe: For who would be satirical Upon a thing so very small? You scarce upon the borders enter, Before you’re at the very centre. A single crow can make it night, When o’er your farm she takes her flight: Yet, in this narrow compass, we Observe a vast variety; Both walks, walls, meadows, and parterres, Windows and doors, and rooms and stairs, And hills and dales, and woods and fields, And hay, and grass, and corn, it yields: All to your haggard brought so cheap in, Without the mowing or the reaping: A razor, though to say’t I’m loth, Would shave you and your meadows both. Though small’s the farm, yet here’s a house Full large to entertain a mouse; But where a rat is dreaded more Than savage Caledonian boar; For, if it’s enter’d by a rat, There is no room to bring a cat.	A little rivulet seems to steal Down through a thing you call a vale, Like tears adown a wrinkled cheek, Like rain along a blade of leek: And this you call your sweet meander, Which might be suck’d up by a gander, Could he but force his nether bill To scoop the channel of the rill. For sure you’d make a mighty clutter, Were it as big as city gutter. Next come I to your kitchen garden, Where one poor mouse would fare but hard in; And round this garden is a walk No longer than a tailor’s chalk; Thus I compare what space is in it, A snail creeps round it in a minute. One lettuce makes a shift to squeeze Up through a tuft you call your trees: And, once a year, a single rose Peeps from the bud, but never blows; In vain then you expect its bloom! It cannot blow for want of room. In short, in all your boasted seat, There’s nothing but yourself that’s GREAT.
This poem has been stated to have been written by Swift’s friend, Dr. Sheridan, on the authority of his son, but it is unquestionably by Swift. See Prose Works, xii, p. 79. —William Ernst Browning, ed., The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D.*, Vol. 1 (London: G. Bell & Sons 1910) - online; accessed 07.06.2024.

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D. A. Chart, The Story of Dublin (London: Dent 1907) - relates the following story about Delaney and Provost Baldwin of Trinity College:

‘Dr Delany, a friend of both the viceroy and the all-powerful Dean Swift, took occasion to preach at Baldwin in the College Chapel. The Provost took no notice until Delany presumed to deliver him a copy of this sermon. “You did, then, sir,” he thundered, “preach this sermon against me. You must, then, beg my pardon publicly in the College Hall or I will expel you.” An apology was refused. The Provost was taking steps to execute his threat, when the viceroy intervened, first with mild entreaties, then with a covert menace. “Tell the Provost,” he said, “that his house is made of glass and that I have a stone in my sleeve.” “Tell His Excellency,” retorted Baldwin, “that if Dr Delany does not beg my pardon in the College Hall to-morrow, I will expel him there at 12 o’clock.” In such a quarrel the viceroy dared not use his power of removing a provost from office. Delany had to make his apology in due form. After this it is not astonishing to hear that, when the collegians marched in procession to S. Patrick’s Cathedral, the resolute figure of the Provost at their head was sufficient to deter the Liberty Boys from their usual attacks on the party. (Chart, op. cit., p161;; no ref.

Note: since the story so much resembles another told about an inappropriate sermon on the Scriptural theme “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof ..” preached on the birthday of Queen Anne by Thomas Sheridan the Elder (friend of Swift), it is possible that it is fabricated in form if not entirely in historical point of fact [BS]. Chart later resumes his anecdotal account of Swift and Delaney:

‘Glasnevin has associations with famous English men of letters.* At Delville, a house in the centre of the village, Dr Delany entertained Swift, Addison and many other writers of note. The mansion was built by the Doctor in conjunction with friend of his, one Helsham. It was at first styled Heldeville, as the result of an attempt to bring in the names of both parties, but this title was soon dropped when the wits of the city began to pronounce it “Hell-Devil.” The Dean is so closely associated with this place that it is not easy to remember that he was but a visitor here. He chose the motto for the temple “Fastigia Despicit Urbis,” in which “despicio,” like the English “to look down on,” is used in a double sense. In a vault below this classic structure, the “Legion Club,” his ferocious libel on the Irish parliament, is said to have been secretly printed. The angry Commons offered a reward for the discovery of the author, but Swift was never betrayed. His sardonic wit was wont [321] to indulge itself with an occasional gibe at the homestead of his dearest friend. He mocked at the doctor’s endeavour to realise all the beauties of a large demesne in his limited area.

“A razor, though to say’t I’m loth, Might shave you and your meadow both ... A little rivulet seems to steal Along a thing you call a vale, Like tears adown a wrinkled cheek, Like rain along a blade of leek,	Which might be sucked up by a gander, Could he but force his rustling bill To scoop the channel of the rill ... In short, in all your boasted seat There’s nothing but yourself is great.”
See the poem in full above -

‘Notice the Irish rhymes of “vale” and “steal,” “great “and “seat.” The pronunciation, which is brogue nowadays, was then cultured English. However, Swift’s account of Delville is mere humorous exaggeration, for the grounds are very extensive and cover several acres. The explanation is probably that Delany’s contemporaries disliked the new, romantic style of landscape gardening, which was beginning to displace the formal lines and terraces made popular by the Dutch. With its lofty lime trees and undulating walks Delville has a distinct charm of its own. The house is a fine example of an old interior, with its spacious decorated rooms lit by quaint windows, the little panes of which are set in wooden frames of tremendous strength and thickness. Dr Delany’s fondness for “multum in parvo “is seen in his tiny oratory, which is no larger than a modern bay window. Some remains of his wife’s hobby appear here and there. She used to collect shells, which she afterwards painted and affixed to the walls and ceilings so as to form a sort of design. The effect is not unpleasing.’ (Chart, op. cit. p.322; available at Internet Archive - online; accessed 05.06.2024.)

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Robert Welch, A History of Verse Translation from the Irish 1789-1897 (Gerrards Cross 1988), [Swift’s] friend Delany was a patron of Carolan and Swift himself may have known the harper.

See also remarks of Alan Bliss about the patronage and friendship of Delany with the harpist Carolan, in Dialogue in Hybernian Stile Between A & B & Irish Eloquence by Jonathan Swift [Irish Writings from the Age of Swift, No. 6], Dublin: Cadenus Press MCMLXXVII [1977], p.54 - as given under Carolan, supra.

Gerard McCoy, ‘“Patriots, Protestants and Papists”: Religion and the Ascendancy, 1714-60’, in Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1, Spring 1994, quoting: ‘Our Blessed Saiour hath indeed taught us by His Own example to give the interest of our country the first place in our affections, but by no means to confine them to that only; but to extend our regard, our concern, our beneficence, to all mankind. Here then is the most perfect pattern of Patriotism, that ever was exhibited to the world - The prime of life, entirely devoted, in the most useful, the most exemplary, the most indefatigable, and disinterested manner, to his care and concern for his country.’ (Sermon Preached on Tuesday, March 13th, 1744, London 1744, pp.4, 13 [sic]; McCoy, pp.112-13.)

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Quotations
Appreciation of Charles O’Conor’s Dissertations (subjoined to revised edn. of 1766): ‘I gladly take this occasion to assure you than no mortal has as cordial a good will to the nation or natives as I have; and I can give no better proof of it, than solemnly to declare that I wish them all as free from the chains of Rome as I am; and upon my concsicnece I know no other more beneficent either to them or you in particular. (Cited by O’Conor in letter to John Curry, 5 June 1766; see Ward & Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor, 1988, p.181.). Note, O’Conor later registered his gratitude to George Faulkner for an introduction to the Dean of Down – that is, Delany – and others (28 Oct. 1766; ibid., p.187).

On female promiscuity:

Ian Watt writes: ‘Moll Flanders [of Defoe] is “tricked once by that cheat called love”, but it is a beginning, not an end; while Colonel Jacque comments on his faithful wife Moggy’s “slip in her younger days” that “it was of small consequence to me one way or another”. In the world of Pamela such off-handedness is inconceivable, for there, in the words of Henry Brooke, “The woman no redemption knows / The wounds of honour never close.”’ (Collection of Pieces, 1778, II, p.45.). See Watt, The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (London: Chatto & Windus 1957) - chap. on ‘Love and the Novel: Richardson’s Pamela’ - and cf. further remarks under Henry Brooke, supra.

Delany wrote to Swift in verse on failing to gain access to his home on a visit in 1724:
“Dear Sir, I think, ’tis doubly hard, Your ears and doors should both be barr'd. Can anything be more unkind? Must I not see, 'cause you are blind? Methinks a friend at night should cheer you,— A friend that loves to see and hear you. Why am I robb'd of that delight,	When you can be no loser by’t Nay, when ’tis plain (for what is plainer?) That if you heard you'd be no gainer? For sure you are not yet to learn, That hearing is not your concern. Then be your doors no longer barr'd: Your business, sir, is to be heard.”
Swift replied:
“The wise pretend to make it clear, ’Tis no great loss to lose an ear. Why are we then so fond of two, When by experience one would do? ’Tis true, say they, cut off the head, And there’s an end; the man is dead; Because, among all human race, None e'er was known to have a brace: But confidently they maintain, That where we find the members twain, The loss of one is no such trouble, Since t'other will in strength be double.	The limb surviving, you may swear, Becomes his brother’s lawful heir: Thus, for a trial, let me beg of Your reverence but to cut one leg off, And you shall find, by this device, The other will be stronger twice; For every day you shall be gaining New vigour to the leg remaining. [...]”
—See further in Poems of Jonathan Swift, ed. W. E. Browning (London: G. Bell 1910) - at Internet Archive - online.

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References
Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78), cites further publications (sermons, &c.; see “Works”, supra), and the swift riposte on Orrery’s Life of Swift (1754); selects “the Duties of a Wife” [‘first, she is to love her husband, and that upon the same principles, and for the very same reason, that he is to love her. First, because they are one flesh ... it is not, indeed, to be imagined that men should treat their wives with the same reserve and formal complaisance after marriage; that the freedom and ease of friendship forbids; but why friendship and freedom should be a reason for ill-treatment, I must own I cannot conceive ... but after all, wives that are so unhappy as to be too much provoked by the ill treatment of their husbands, should always remember that their husbands’ guilt doth not justify theirs, and much less will neglect or rudeness in the husband justify infidelity in the wife.’] Also, “The Duty of Paying Debts” [‘A good-natured villain will surfeit a sot and gorge a glutton, nay, will glut his horses and his hounds with that food for which the vendors are one day to starve to death in a dungeon; a good-natured monster will be gay in the spoils of widows and orphans. / Good-nature separated from virtue is absolutey the worst quality and character in life; at least, if this be good-nature, to feed a dog, and to murder a man. And therfore, if you have any pretence to good-nature, pay your deabts and in so doing clothe those poor families that are no in rags for your finery -’.

Dictionary of National Biography gives this biographical account: b. Ireland, son of servant of Irish judge, Sir John Russell, and afterwards small farmer; sizar, TCD; popular preacher and tutor worth £900 from his pupils; maintained his dignity more than Swift’s other companions; intimacy began 10 Nov 1718, with verses addressed by Swift praising his conversational powers and requesting him to advise Sheridan to keep his jests within the bounds of politeness; defended case of expelled students in college sermon, 1724; compelled to apologise to Provost; parish of St. John, Dublin, 1725; Archbishop Boulter resisted his application to hold this with his fellowship, letter to Canterbury showing him to be thought dangerous influence; Lord Carteret gav him the chancellorship of Christ Church in 1727, and in 1729 the prependary of St Patrick’s; Chancellor of St. Patrick’s, 1730; sought further preferment of Carteret in verse; momentary coolness with Swift who thought him too much of a courtier; introduced the Pilkington’s to Swift; Swift called him the ‘most eminent preacher we have’; Delany published periodical, The Tribune, running to 20 numbers; publ. Revelations examined with Candour (1732; 2nd vol. 1732; 3rd vol., 1763); m. Margaret Tenison, rich widow; called by Swift one of the few men not spoiled by access of fortune; hospitality; his book ridiculed for enjoining Christians to abstain from things strangled and from blood; excited more criticism with Reflections upon Polygamy and the encouragement given to that practise by the Scriptures of the Old Testament, by Phileleutherus Dubliniensis (1738); 2nd. ed. 1739, with apologetic preface by Boulter with whom he was now reconciled, arguing that polygamy was not favourable to population; An Historical Account of the Life and Writings of King David, vol. i (1740), vols. ii and iii (1742), defending David against Bayle; first wife died 1741; went to England to offer himself to Mrs Pendarves; m. 9 June 1743; appointed to deanery of Down through her interest; Hel Del Ville, then Delville, built by him and Dr Helsham; minute size ridiculed in verses by Sheridan printed in Swift’s works; continued in state left by Delanys with shell decorations of the ceilings and a fresco port. of Stella, attrib. to Mrs Delany; hospitality and bill of fare recounted in Mrs Delany’s diaries; Mrs Delany bought house at Spring Gardens, England, with which she parted shortly before his death; issued as ‘J. R.’ [pseud.] Observations upon Lord Orrery’s Remarks upon the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift (1754), intended to vindicate Swift from some of Orrery’s insinuations, well written, and only account of Swift by one who had known him in the full force of his intellect; Swift left a medal to him, and appointed him one of his executors; lawsuit arising out of first marriage having destroyed settlement made at the time; wife’s heirs called for account of the property; decision against him by Irish chancellor, 23 Dec. 1752; reversed on appeal to Lords, 1758, Lord Mansfield speaking for him in ‘an hour and a half of angelic oratory (Mrs Delany, Autobiog., 1st ser. iii, 490); health decayed; started the Humanist, denouncing among other things docking of horses tails; tried effect of Bath waters; gradually sank, and d. 6 May 1768; left nothing but his books and furniture. Bibl. incl. Swift’s works, Mrs Delany’s Autobiog., Cotton’s Fasti, ii, 58, 59; Boulter’s Letters; Josiah Brown’s Cases in Parliament (1783, v.300-25).

S. C. Hughes, The Church of S. Werburgh (Hodges & Figgis 1889, 104 Grafton St.; Charles W Gibbs, Printer, Dublin), contains a notice on Delany: TCD Schol., TCD, 1704, grad. 1706; Fellowship 1709; King’s Lect. in Div., 1722-28; Prof. of Oratory and History, 1724-32; vicar of Davidstown, 1727; in addition, rector of Derryvullen, Clogher, 1728; resigned fellowship. Chancellor of Christ Church, 1727-44; Chancellor of St patrick’s, 1730, holding his other benefices by faculty; Deanery of Down, 1744. Much information about his life and times may be gleaned from the Memoirs of Mrs Delany, a pompous relative of Lord Carteret. [Cf. ‘a pompous beadle’ who was deposed for reading the burial service, ibid., p.47.] He had a residence at Delville, Glasnevin, and having died at Bath in 1768, he was buried at the corner of the old graveyard in Glasnevin. There is an attractive bust [port.] of him in the College Library. Excellent preacher and good writer of prose and verse, one of the most brilliant of Swift’s set, ‘And thus my stock of wit decayed, / I dying leave the debt unpaid, / Unless Delany, as my heir, / Will answer for the whole arrear.’ (Swift, in lines on Stella). Further, advising Sheridan to study the goodhumour of Delany’s verse, ‘He’ll find the secret out from thence / To rhyme all day without offence.’ Referring to Delany’s slow promotion, and his own, ‘A genius in the reverend gown / Must ever keep its owner down; / ‘tis an unnatural combination, / And spoils the credit of the function’. Delany wrote his fable of ‘The Pheasant and the Lark’ on the occasion of his promotion to Chancellorship by Carteret, ‘It chanced as on a day he strayed / Beneath an Academic shade, / He liked, amid a thousand throats, / The wildness of a woodlark’s notes; / And searched, and spied, and seized his game, / And took him home, and made him tame, / Found him on trial, true and able / So cheered, and fed him at his table.’ (pp.62-63, end.) Note prefatory remarks to this volume: ‘It is hoped that it will possess some interest for the Visitors - viz, Sir Knights of the Baldwin Encampment, Bristol, attending Vestry in Comm[ittee?] of Special Services, 27 March 1898 - as the first English in Dublin were a Bristol Colony, and as Bristol has among her own Churches one ded. to S Werburgh.

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D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), lists A Poem addressed to His Excellency Lord Carteret [who appointed him Chancellor of Christ Church, ODNB supra] (Dublin 1730); friend of Swift; b. Ireland circa 1685; anthologised by Matthew Concanen [Misc. Poems by Several hands, 1727]; some relics in Gilbert collection, Dublin Central.

Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput 1985) notes that he held office of Chancellor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral but prospered through marriage to two wealthy widows, to the advantage of his friends; lived in Delville, Glasnevin; entertained Swift and O’Carolan; cites Observations upon Lord Orrery’s Remarks upon the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift (1754); Revelations examined with candour (1732); Reflections on Polygamy (1738), and a defence of Swift against Orrery, 1754.

The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. Margaret Drabble (OUP 1986), cites Observations upon Lord Orrery’s Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift (1754), signed ‘J.R.’, an attempt to correct ‘very mistaken and erroneous accounts which have been published.’

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (1991), Vol. 1 453-54 [remarks on Swift’s circle, his exchange of literary complements with Delany and others; and the enmity of Arbuckle]; selects ‘News from Parnassus’ [456-57; eulogising Swift]; [WORKS & COMM., 492, Observations &c. (Lon 1754; also Dublin 1754); Delany considered in all major biographies; see also Robert W. Uphaus, ‘Swift’s “whole character”, The Delany Poems and “Verses on th Death of Dr Swift”, in Modern Language Quarterly, 34, No.4 (Dec. 1973), pp.406-16; reference in JC Beckett chapter in A New History of Ireland, IV; ODNB. BIBL., 495, ‘News from Parnassus’ (Dublin 1721), Foxon D202, from Harold Williams, ed., The Poems of Jonathan Swift, I, pp.266-69; do., also in Matthew Concanen’s Miscellaneous Poems [by Several Hands] (London 1724). NOTE also: The most severe attack on Swift was made by James Arbuckle, the poet, philosopher and journalist who edited The Dublin Weekly Journal, 1725-27, and who was ridiculed again and again by the literati between 1725 and 1736. Swift had used the figure of Momus as the patron of the Moderns in The Battle &c. In 1735 Arbuckle used him to attack Swift’s private life, leaving it to Mercury, a thief, ‘Pimp’, and ‘Blackguard Crier of the News’, to make an unconvincing tribute to Swift at the end of the poet. [FDA1453-54; and see under Arbuckle, and Sterling.]

A. N. Jeffares & Peter Van de Kamp, eds., Irish Literature: The Eighteenth Century - An Annotated Anthology (Dublin: IAP Press 2006), gives extract from Eighteen Discourses [“Of Gaming”] [134].

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Notes
Stern about Sterne: Dean Patrick Delany would not have Tristram Shandy in the house as a work of ‘bad tendency’ (see ‘Mrs. Delany’ in Constantia Maxwell, Strangers in Ireland, 1954, p. 149).

Swift’s meeting with Stella: ‘I have good reason to believe that they were greatly shocked and distressed (tho’ it may be differently) upon the occasion. The Dean made a tour to the South of Ireland for about two months, at this time, to dissipate his thoughts and give place to obloquy. And Stella retired (upon the earnest invitation of the owner) to the house of a cheerful, generous, good-natured friend of the Dean’s whom she also much loved and honoured. there my informant often saw her and, I have reason to believe, used his utmost endeavour to relieve, support and amuse her in this sad situation.’ (Cited Sybil Le Brocquy, Cadenus, 1962, p.99-100, with the comment that Dr. Delany was himself the informant.)

For remarks on Swift, Carolan and Delany - see under Turlough Carolan - supra.

House improvements: For Delany’s improvements at Delville [House], see Edward Malins, ‘Landscape Gardening by Jonathan Swift and His Friends in Ireland, Garden History II (1973), 69 [J. W. Foster, Colonial Consequences, 1991]. FDA1, selects ‘News from Parnassus’, 456-57.

Portrait: There is a bust of Delany by [attributed to] Van Nost in the Old Library, TCD. Constantia Maxwell writes: ‘He was a very good preacher, a popular tutor, a writer of verses and epigrams, and a man of taste and humour, whose intelligence was praised by Swift. He wrote some very dull books, but one has only to look at the fascinating bust of him by Van Nost in the gallery of Trinity College Library to see that he had humour and charm.’ (Strangers in Ireland, 1954, p.145]

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