Stories of the Four Courts

Category: Barristers

  • Mr Dunn BL goes to Law, 1840

    Previous posts on the long-running saga of Irish barrister Richard Dunn: (1) Mr Dunn BL in Love, 1836 (2) Mr Dunn BL in Love Again, 1838 (3) Mr Dunn BL in Prison for Love, 1838 (4) Mr Dunn BL Back in Town, 1839-40. Early readers of this blog will remember…

  • Seven Bagfuls of Stolen Briefs, 1875

    From the Belfast Telegraph, 28 January 1875, a story which gives a unique insight into everyday life in the Four Courts, and Dublin, in the mid-to-late 19th century. All of human life is here: the barristers with their bagfuls of briefs transitioning back and forth from court, to the Law…

  • John Philpot Curran’s Lucky Brief, 1779

    Because barristers cannot receive instructions directly from the public, and are dependent on solicitors to give them cases, it can be challenging – and sometimes impossible – for a young advocate to get established. It used to be said that, as a rule of thumb, at least two of the…

  • The Barrister’s Boots That Went to Mass and Came Back Lucky, 1910-1991

    From the Irish Press, 18 January 1940: “Mr. Albert Wood, SC, who has been retained to lead in the appeals of Peter Barnes and James Richards, before the Court of Criminal Appeal, London, from their convictions on the charge of the murder of a girl shop assistant who was fatally…

  • The Bells of St Bartholomew’s and Serjeant William Bennett Campion, 1882-1907

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 9 February 1924: “UNHAPPY CHIMES In the first days of a New Year, we find ourselves chatting of joybells. It seldom occurs to the present generation of Dubliners that our local peal of bells has figured in anything but joyous litigation, and in the old Four…

  • The Barrister and the ‘Charley,’ c.1780

    From the Irish Independent, 12 November 1907, this fantastic piece on ‘The Charleys,’ or the Old Dublin Watch, by D.J.M. Quinn, with an amusing story in its last paragraph about how an eminent and somewhat officious ‘gentleman of the wig and gown’ of times past found himself magnificently outwitted by…

  • The Tall Hat as Mandatory Off-Duty Legal Wear, 1800-1934

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 5 February 1916: “TALL HATS IN DUBLIN MULLEN V LEMASS (Before Mr Justice Pim) The plaintiff, Kate Mullen, brought an action to recover from the defendant, John Lemass, £90, arrears of rent due out of premises at 15 Usher’s quay.  The defendant pleaded surrender, and that…

  • Two Tragic Barrister Trip and Falls at Wilton Place, 1882-1911

    The Grand Canal, Dublin, at Wilton Place, between Baggot Street and Leeson Street Bridge, by Edward Tomkins, via Whytes.ie From the Clonmel Chronicle, 20 December 1882: “A DUBLIN BARRISTER FOUND DROWNED The body of the late Mr. Robert Donnell BL was discovered in the Grand Canal, in the immediate vicinity…

  • The Dangers of Wedding an Improvident Bride, 1832-1849

    From Saunders’s News-Letter, 19 January 1837: “The Dowager Lady Ventry died at her lodgings last evening. The demise of this unfortunate lady will, we hope, enable a respectable citizen and a barrister of great standing and practice, to resume his station in society, and entitle him again to take his…

  • Eight Days in a Lifeboat for Author of Indispensable Irish Criminal Law Text Torpedoed off Africa, 1941

    From the Irish Examiner, 3 November 1941: “After eight days in a lifeboat, following the torpedoing off the West African coast of a Dutch ship in which he was travelling, Mr Robert Lindsay Sandes, a Dublin barrister who has been practising in South Africa for a number of years, was…

  • The Barrister Who Fell in Love With his Witness, 1908-1915

    The character of Professor Moriarty in Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ stories may have been inspired by Doyle’s Stonyhurst classmate John Francis Moriarty, who subsequently went on to become an Irish barrister and judge of the Court of Appeal in Ireland.  Not only that, but he also became one of…

  • A Barrister’s Mysterious Death, 1844

    From the Tipperary Vindicator, October 1844: ” J WALSH ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW It is with feelings of intense sorrow we announce the death of this gentleman. His loss is a public one. It is one which, we fear, it will be difficult to supply. The detail of his melancholy fate –…

  • Scouts say ‘Great Scott’ as Irish Barrister Repeatedly Risks Life in Breathtaking Powerscourt Waterfall Rescues, 1942-44

    From the Irish Independent, 4 August 1942: “Hundreds of picnickers watched, in tense excitement, while a Dublin holiday-maker balanced himself for three hours on a ledge 200 feet up the rocky side of the famous Powerscourt waterfall yesterday until he was rescued by a Dublin barrister who was camping in…

  • Irish Barrister Beheaded on Banks of Bosphorus, c.1825

    From the Irish Independent, 17 June 1909: “A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY In the early years of the nineteenth century one of the most popular favourites in Dublin Society was a barrister named William Norcott, whose identity is discreetly veiled under the initial ’N—-‘ by several chroniclers of the period.  He was…

  • Irish Barrister Escapes Prison, Elopes to France in a Barrel, 1820

    From the Weekly Irish Times, 26 April 1902: “In the early years of the last century, a youthful barrister named Hodgins, just called to the bar, fell in love with a pretty girl he had noticed coming out of a fashionable boarding school in Mary Street. She smiled upon him,…

  • Called to the Bar, June 1914

    From the Irish Independent, 11 June 1914: A grainier version of the above photo appears in the Freeman’s Journal of the same day, where the new barristers above are identified as Frederick Jerome Dempsey, Edward James Smyth, Samuel Spedding John, Thomas William Gillilan Johnson Hughes, Denis Bernard Kelly, Oliver L…

  • Former British Intelligence Officer and Would-Be Barrister Drowns at North Wall, 1921

    From the Belfast Telegraph, 11 August 1921: “BELFAST OFFICER’S DEATH. STRANGE AFFAIR IN DUBLIN. BELIEVED HE WAS A MARKED MAN. We regret to announce the death of Mr Frederick W Morrison, a native of Belfast, which took place under sad circumstances through drowning in Dublin. The deceased was a fine specimen of…

  • Barrister’s Vacation Ends in Litigation, 1885

    Adapted from the Irish Times, 25 and 26 March 1885: “The Reverend Henry Peter Higginson brought a motion for final judgment to recover £27 10s from Thomas Hewson BL, who is a member of the Irish Bar, claiming that he had asked Mr Hewson on a visit to Tetbury during…

  • The Rush to the Bar, 1840-1841

    From the Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail, 21 November 1840: “The French war, and the other more prominent national mischiefs having been disposed of, and set, we hope, for the term of our natural life, to rest, we naturally turn our eyes upon the minor calamities which threaten our domestic…

  • Half a Century After Renouncing Monastic Vows, Septuagenarian Barrister Magistrate Marries his Nurse, 1908

    From the Dublin Evening Telegraph, 28 April 1908: “INTERESTING ROMANCE At St Patrick’s Church, Monkstown, at half-past nine o’clock yesterday morning, Mr Thomas J Wall, K.C., 26 Longford Terrace, Monkstown, was married to Miss Gertrude Garland, of Dublin. The ceremony was performed by the Rev Father Eaton, P.P., of Monkstown.…

  • A Barrister’s Privilege Against Physical Retribution for Hurt Feelings, 1821

    From Saunders’s News-Letter, 27 November 1821: “COURT OF COMMON PLEAS On Saturday a conditional order was obtained by Counsellor Blackburne, the plaintiff, against Mr Hines, an attorney, for sending a Gentleman to him in the Hall of the Four Courts, to demand an explanation of account of some misunderstanding between…

  • Leonard McNally, Barrister Lyricist, 1787-9

    Irish barristers often have many unexpected talents – and Leonard McNally BL was no exception. Not only did ‘McNally the Incorruptible’ purport to act as defence counsel for Irish barrister revolutionaries Robert Emmet (above) and the Sheares Brothers while simultaneously informing on them to the authorities, but he was also…

  • The Mythical Miss Staveley and the Bamboozled Bar Benevolent Fund, 1927

    From the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 17 March 1927: “A remarkable story of the perpetration of frauds on many prominent people both in this country and in Ireland was told at Highgate yesterday, when John LM Reddington, alias Edward McLaughlin (59), of 451 Archway Road, Highgate, was charged with…

  • Marry a Former Chief Justice of Tobago in Haste, Repent at Leisure, 1840-55

    There were many Irish barristers who took on the task of administering justice on foreign and often inclement shores in such a way as to do credit to their country of origin. Barristers such as John Jefcott, first Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia, Henry Barnes Gresson, Judge…

  • The Bar Cricket Club in Season, 1889-1890

    From the Clonmel Chronicle, 10 July 1880: “The members of the Bar of Ireland sometimes unbend the legal mind in the soft excitement of lawn tennis; but when they do, the learned gentlemen have their little frolic in ‘chamber’ as it were, and not in court.  They had what is…

  • Boys’ Night In Ends in Three Months’ Hard Labour for Elderly Barrister, 1892

    From the Derry Journal, 8 June 1892: “At the Petty Sessions, Nenagh, Mr Sadleir Stoney, Barrister at Law and Justice of the Peace for Dublin, who resides at Ballycapple, between Nenagh and Cloughjordan, surrendered to heavy recognisances and was charged with having assaulted Mrs Alice Bunbury, wife of Captain Bunbury,…

  • A Barrister’s Right to Walk Unobstructed, 1893

    From the Cork Constitution, 17 April 1893: “STRANGE CONDUCT OF AN IRISH BARRISTER CHARGED BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES WITH STREET OBSTRUCTION Mr William C Hennessy, barrister-at-law, Tralee, was charged by Constable John Foster with obstructing the footpath on the Grand Parade, at four o’clock on Friday evening.  Mr Hennessy had been…

  • Fun on Circuit, 1909

    From the Irish Independent, 2 July 1909: “ON CIRCUIT, by G.O. July is undoubtedly the pleasantest month in the barristers’ working year.  The Circuits are out then, and business is judiciously combined with pleasure.  The old stager, whose hair is whiter than his wig, and to whom briefs are a…

  • His Only Brief, 1896

    From the Weekly Irish Times, 27 June 1896: “HIS ONLY BRIEF ‘QC, MP’ tells a true story infinitely full of pathos.  A fortnight ago a letter reached him in the handwriting of an old college friend, telling a pitiful story of a stranded life.  The writer had been called to…

  • Enough to make Curls Stand on End: Fee Recovery and the Junior Bar, 1862-present

    From the Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette, 5 February 1876: “The normal calm of the ‘Coffee-Room,’ that veritable place of ‘refreshers,’ was somewhat disturbed by an occurrence of an unprecedented character, so far as the Four Courts of our days are concerned.  In a very short space of time as many…

  • Malpractices of the Senior Bar, 1862

    From the King’s County Chronicle, 5 March 1862, an impressive editorial diatribe against the then practice of Irish Queen’s Counsel accepting multiple briefs for the same day while asserting the right to retain all fees paid in advance, even where they failed, as a result, to appear in one or…

  • Irish Free State Prosecuting Barrister Kidnapped, Tarred and Tied to Railings Outside Arbour Hill Prison, 1934

    From the Irish Independent, 8 December 1934: “Mr PJ McEnery, the well-known Dublin barrister, who has appeared for the State in recent cases tried by the Military Tribunal, was the victim of a startling affair last night.  While on his way from the Courts to his home at Killiney, Dublin,…

  • Visiting English Barrister Mistakes Free State Detectives for Gunmen, 1923

    From the Belfast News-Letter, 11 December 1923: “SCENE IN DUBLIN HOTEL – LONDON BARRISTER THOUGHT DETECTIVES WERE GUNMEN Described as a barrister, Frederick Ritters, London, was in the Dublin police courts yesterday charged with obstructing two detectives in the execution of their duty. The two detectives were about to make…

  • Mr Godley BL in Trouble Again, 1948

    From the Belfast Telegraph, 4 June 1948: “John Godley, 87, was placed on probation for a year at Weston-Super-Mare today, on two charges of attempting to obtain money by false pretences. Superintendent Baker said since 1934 practically all Godley’s income had been derived from writing begging letters. ‘He made a…

  • The Marrying Kind, or, Mr Godley BL and the Two Wives, December 1903

    From the Belfast News-Letter, 4 December 1903: “At the Commission Court last evening, before Mr Justice Kenny, the jury found John Godley, Barrister-at-Law and Alice Lilian Pritchard, trading as Leigh, Moore & Co, 6 Westland Row, Dublin, guilty of obtaining money by false pretences by means of cheques.  They strongly recommended…

  • Mr Godley BL and the Bounced Cheque, October 1903

    From the Northern Whig, Saturday 31 October 1903: “Yesterday in the Southern Police Court, before Mr Swifte, Mr John Godley, Barrister-at-Law, and Miss (or Mrs) Lilian Moore, otherwise Pritchard, otherwise Mrs L Moore, carrying on business at 6 Westland Row, appeared on remand to answer a summons to show cause…

  • Wife of John Godley BL Catches Fire at Leeson Street Party, 1888

    From the Waterford Standard, 18 February 1888: “An accident which might have had a fatal termination to a young lady well known in Dublin Society took place on Friday night at a ball given by Mr Molloy QC in Leeson-Street.  As one of the earliest dances of the evening was progressing,…

  • Mr Dunn BL Back in Town, 1839-40

    From the Leeds Intelligencer, 29 December 1838: “MR DUNN AGAIN AND MISS BURDETT COUTTS At Bow-Street, on Monday, Miss Angelina Burdett-Coutts, accompanied by her father, Sir F Burdett, and attended by Mr Parkinson and Mr Humphries, solicitors, appeared before Sir F Roe to proffer a charge of annoying and insulting…

  • Mr Dunn BL in Prison for Love, October 1838

    From the Tuam Herald and the Sheffield Independent, 13 October 1838: “The Irish Gentleman (Mr Dunn, the Irish Barrister) alluded to in our paper a few weeks ago, is now at Knaresboro’ in the custody of a police officer from London, on the charge of annoying a certain rich young…

  • Mr Dunn BL in Love Again, 1838

    From an unnamed London journal, as recounted in the Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, 25 September 1838, this update on the continued romantic endeavours of Irish barrister Richard Dunn, last heard of on the way to Kilmainham Gaol two years earlier, after an unsuccessful attempt to win the hand…

  • The Law and the ‘Flu, 1918-22

    The Spanish ‘flu arrived in Ireland in the summer of 1918, possibly in Belfast.   The Belfast News-Letter of 10 July 1918 reported the death of Bernard Hughes BL, a North-East Circuit barrister of eight years vintage, after a severe attack of influenza.   Mr Hughes, from a bakery family, was described…

  • Mr Dunn BL in Love, 1836

    From the Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail, 30 July 1836: “INVESTIGATION AT KINGSTOWN Yesterday an investigation was entered into by magistrates of the Blackrock petty sessions in Kingstown, relative to the alleged misconduct of Mr Richard Dunne (more commonly spelt Dunn), a barrister, residing at N.1 Clare Street, Dublin, against…

  • Irish Barrister’s Wife Linked to International Man of Mystery, 1926

    From the Evening Herald, 13 April 1926: “A music hall star well known 35 years ago as ‘Bonnie Kate Harvey’ and now Mrs Kate Macaulay, wife of an Irish barrister, brought an action in the King’s Bench, London, claiming damages for defamation in respect of a story in which it…

  • Early Irish Bar Strike, c.1790

    From the Irish Industrial Journal, 4 September 1850: “REBELLION OF THE IRISH BAR – Lord Clonmel, upon occasion, in the Court of King’s Bench, used rough language to Mr Hacket, a gentleman of the Bar, the members of which profession considered themselves as all assailed in the the person of…

  • Irish Barristers and their Fees, 1866

    From the Dublin Evening Mail, 24 October 1866: “A gentleman who signs himself ‘A Stuff Gown,’ states in a letter addressed to a Dublin contemporary… that ‘bar etiquette requires that barristers shall not accept briefs unless they get the fees with them, and that gentlemen who do otherwise violate, in…

  • Round Hall Wrestle After Perceived Insult to Barrister’s Mother, 1893

    From the Belfast News-Letter, 25 January 1893: “Dublin, Tuesday – Mr Pierce De Lacey Mahony, Parnellite candidate for North Meath, a picturesque, handsome, tall, sparely-built man, with Shakespearian cast of countenance, fine dark eyes and hair turning grey, assailed, Mr Matthew J Kenny, MP, of the North=West Bar, a tall,…

  • Barrister Sentenced to Six Months’ Hard Labour for Stealing Books from Trinity College Library, 1840

    From the Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail, 18 April 1840: “CONVICTION OF A BARRISTER FOR FELONY. Robert Harman, a barrister, was indicted for stealing a number of books from Trinity College Library, the property of the University. The prisoner, when placed at the bar, trembled from head to foot, and…

  • Ballymoney Barrister Treats Servants as Guests, 1913

    From the Jarrow Express, 21 July 1913: “A remarkable defence was made in a case in which Mr Robert Cramsie, barrister-at-law, of Ballymoney, Co Antrim, was prosecuted before the local magistrates by the Irish Insurance Commissioners for failing to pay the contributions under the National Insurance Act in respect of…

  • Barrister Overboard, 1873

    From the Ballyshannon Herald, 21 June 1873: “FATAL ACCIDENT TO A DUBLIN BARRISTER Yesterday afternoon, after the steamship Sarmatian reached her wharf at South Quebec, a most melancholy accident occurred to Mr JS Barrett, barrister, of Dublin, a cabin passenger on his way to Toronto.  He went on shore to…

  • Derry Girl’s Application to Become Barrister Rejected by Benchers of King’s Inns, 1901

    From the Irish News and Belfast Morning News, 26 October 1901 “The usual monotony of the meeting of the Benchers to-day was varied by an incident which should serve as a reminder to them and to all men that the slow-going nineteenth century has come to an end, and that…

  • The Great Golfing Days of the Irish Bar, 1904-14

    From the Western Morning News of 21 April 1911: “The representative match between the members of the Bar Golfing Society and the Irish Bar has now become a very well-established annual fixture.  At one time there was the possibility of the contest being only an intermittent one and an idea…

  • The Female Barrister – Fair, Feared and ‘Finished at Forty,’ 1896

    The 1896 decision of the Benchers of the Ontario Law Society to admit women to the Bar of Ontario, resulted in a flurry of excitement as to whether the same dread fate might await this jurisdiction. The Freeman’s Journal of 12 August 1896 did not look kindly on the idea…

  • The Musket and the Brief, 1798

    Yesterday’s relaxation of traditional requirements regarding barristers’ court dress brings to mind an earlier decision of the Benchers in Trinity Term 1798 permitting barrister members of the Lawyers’ Corps to appear in court armed and in uniform. Sheil’s ‘Sketches of the Irish Bar’ records subsequent events in all their colourful…

  • Barristers Play the Market, 1900

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 1 February 1900, this story set during the Anglo- Boer War of 1899-1902: “There is nothing more interesting in the Four Courts Law Library at present than the telegrams which are sent there daily to a group of barristers who have arranged for a supply of…

  • Barrister’s Daughter Elopes in Mother’s Dress, 1878

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 28 February 1878: “(SPECIAL TELEGRAM FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT) An extraordinary case of elopement has just come to light.  This morning there arrived in Belfast by the Royal Mail steamer from Glasgow a somewhat prepossessing young lady, said to be the daughter of a barrister residing in…

  • Bloodhound Sent Out After Father of the Irish Bar Disappears in Scottish Highlands, 1889

    From the Glasgow Evening Post, 4 October 1889: “DISAPPEARANCE OF A DUBLIN BARRISTER Mr Andrews, a QC of Dublin, aged 87 years, who has been residing at Tighnabruaich, Kyles of Bute, for some time, has been missing since Wednesday.  On Wednesday afternoon he was out for a walk along the…

  • Irish Woman Barrister Secures Acquittal for Client on Murder Charge, 1931

    From the Waterford Standard, 14 March 1931: “LADY BARRISTER WINS HER FIRST MURDER CASE When she defended Mary Ellen Farrelly, Goiley, Fordstown, Kells, at the Central Criminal Court, Dublin, this week, Miss K Phelan BL won the first murder case in which she had pleaded. Farrelly was charged with the…

  • Barrister Rescues Sheep, Sued by its Owner, 1907

    From the Northern Whig, 29 October 1907 “It is not the first time that trop de zele has brought trouble upon honest people.  The eagerness of Mr Robert Doyle, a member of the Irish Bar, in the cause of prevention of cruelty to animals, made him a defendant in an…

  • The Prime of Miss Averil Deverell BL, 1937

    All members of the Irish Bar know of Averil Deverell, whose enigmatic representation in oils smiles down, Brodie-like, from the wall of the Four Courts Law Library. Miss Deverell holds the distinction of being not only the first practising woman barrister in Southern Ireland but also one of the first…

  • Barrister Goes on Fire in Ballina Circuit Court, 1934

    From the Meath Chronicle, 24 November 1934: “BARRISTER ON FIRE IN COURT Mr Connolly, a barrister, was addressing Judge Wyse-Power in Ballina (Co Mayo) Circuit Court, when his gown came in contact with an electric fire and blazed up. A solicitor dashed forward and put out the flames after a…

  • Barrister Shoots Himself While Practising for Lawyers’ Corps, 1803

    From the Dublin Journal, 22 March 1803: “Died on Friday last, at Montpelier Place, near the Black Rock, James Sweetman Esq, Barrister at Law. His death was occasioned by an unhappy accident; he was in the Lawyers Corps, and though in a weak state of health, had determined to resume…

  • A Strange Bequest, 1913

    From the Aberdeen Daily Journal, 23 September 1913: “Mr William Green, of Gardiner’s Place, Dublin, barrister, for some time editor of the Authorised Law Reports, left personal estate in the United Kingdom valued at £1059. The testator bequeathed £100, his books, pictures and medals, and a little wax doll in…

  • Barristers Successfully Challenge Exclusion from Side Passages of Court, 1848

    In an era in which the courts, and not parliament, served as the primary venue for Irish political theatre, one significant side benefit of being a barrister was the opportunity of a ringside seat! The Kilkenny Journal, 24 May 1848, contains a report of an interesting minor skirmish which occurred…

  • Doing ‘Circuit’ in a Motor, 1907

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 2 July 1907: “The march of science received a new illustration at the Four Courts yesterday, when some half-dozen members of the Leinster Circuit started in a motor car from the Four Courts for Nenagh, at which town the Assizes open today. The car was a…

  • Barrister Railway Fatalities, 1862-1921

    From the Dublin Evening Telegraph, 11 January 1921: “The sad news of the tragic death of Mr Henry Kennedy, a member of the Irish Bar, in Switzerland on Saturday night reached the Four Courts today.  It appears that while getting into a train about 11.30 p.m. at the frontier on…

  • Barristers’ Term-Time Immunity from Arrest for Debt, 1860

    From the Irish Times, 1 February 1860: “[In] Rubenstein v O’Hara… an application was made for the purposes of discharging the defendant, a practising barrister, from arrest [for debt]. The plaintiff… left home to attend the hall of the Four Courts [without an] actual brief, but in the course of…

  • ADR Irish Style, Pre-1850

    From the Kentish Gazette, 5 February 1850: “A famous duellist challenged an Irish barrister, for some remark made by the barrister when the duellist was giving his testimony on the stand in an important case. The barrister knew precisely as much about fighting as a fancy boxer knows about Milton’s…

  • Young Bar Protest Against Judicial Unpunctuality, 1919

    From the Belfast Telegraph, 2 December 1919: “Some judges and junior barristers acted a little comedy in the Four Courts yesterday. When Judge Samuels had disposed of some appeals, he left Court No 1… some 12 junior barristers having motions to move became impatient and left the Court, informing the…

  • A Railway Mystery, 1905

    From the Irish Independent, 2 June 1905: “Mr John D Gerrard, BA BL, while travelling by the 6.45 p.m. train from Bray to Dublin on Wednesday evening was the victim of an accident which is still shrouded in mystery. Shortly after reaching Dundrum, Mr Gerrard leaned out the carriage window.…

  • Barrister Convicted of Knocker-Wrenching, 1870

    From the Liverpool Courier and Commercial Advertiser, 12 May 1870 “George Carr, barrister… [was] charged with having wrenched off a knocker from the hall-door of the house 44 Dawson-Street between the hours of one and two o’clock on Tuesday… one of the constables observed the accused leaving a hotel in…

  • Cab Driver Convicted of Overcharging a Barrister, 1895

    From the Waterford Standard, 13 July 1895: “On Thursday last, at the City Police Court, a man named James Casey, a car-driver in the city, summoned by the Corporation for charging in excess of what was authorised by the Council. Mr E Feely BL, who was the witness in the…

  • Junior Barrister Piqued by Omission of his Name from News Report, 1871

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 19 June 1871: “TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMAN DEAR SIR – [D]uring the discussion before of the House of Commons of the Alliance Gas Bill, your reporter… has omitted both the names of Mr O’Hara and myself from the list of counsel retained against the bill.…

  • Sailing Fatalities among the Irish Bar, 1872-1907

    From the Belfast News-Letter, 21 July 1898: “Kingstown regatta opened today in ideal weather – bright sunshine and a fair sailing breeze… Sympathy was felt for Mr Justice Boyd, whose fine yacht, Thalia, was competing, while he himself, anxious to be on board, had to sit administering justice in the…

  • Sumptuous Connaught Bar Dinner, 1831

    From the Freeman, 7 November 1831: “Dinner to Stephen Woulfe, Esquire, Assistant Barrister: The solicitors practising in this district invited our learned and impartial Assistant Barrister to a sumptuous dinner at Kilroys on Saturday last. Every luxury of the season was served up in the best style, and the wines,…

  • The Irish Barrister’s Dead Sweetheart’s Belongings, 1900

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 7 March 1900, and the Islington Gazette, 5 March 1900: “At the Clerkenwell County Court, Mrs Dorcas Poyntz sued Miss Rosita Tennyson, an actress, for £25.12s, the value of goods formerly belonging to her daughter, Evaline Poyntz, who had been visiting Miss Tennyson at the date…

  • Led to be Bled: The Painful Duty of Junior Counsel, 1899

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 19 August 1899: “The shooting of Dreyfus’s Counsel, Maitre Labori, reminds a writer in the ‘Liverpool Post’ that members of the Bar in England, and still more in this country, have from time to time been called upon to defend their forensic opinions and actions by…

  • Briefless Barristers as Marriage Prospects, 1870

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 31 May 1870: “SIR – Can you kindly inform me why business people possess no social position in Dublin? This evil has increased latterly, commencing at the public school, where the children of a respectable trader are despised by those of professionals, whose parents inculcate the…

  • The Devil’s Own, or, the Bar and the Boers, 1900

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 22 February 1900: “We have never been quite able to understand why the Four Courts has not raised a ‘Devil’s Own’ Corps for service in the present war. It was not that there were not plenty of juniors and others, with sufficient leisure for soldiering, nor…

  • The Bigamist Barrister, 1846

    From the Liverpool Mail, 18 April 1846: “At Dublin, on Saturday, the trial of Mr Henry Augustus Browne, barrister, for bigamy took place in the Commission Court… Mr Browne is a remarkably well-looking man of about 24 or 25 years of age… a prime favourite with his brethern at the…

  • Case Citations and Personal Law Libraries, pre-1836

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 1 September 1890: “Modern text books now enable practitioners to dispense with much memorised learning laboriously acquired in former days… Within the recollection of men still living the library at the Four Courts did not exist, and it was considered a breach of etiquette to bring…

  • The Litigant who became a Barrister, 1853

    From Saunders’ Newsletter, 3 July 1853: “The spectator in the Hall of the Four Courts may, if it pleases, sometimes see, in his costume, a tall, portly looking young man whose history is about as romantic as that of any learned gentleman in the Four Courts. Mr Wall… before his…

  • Barrister’s Spouse Violated by Briefing Solicitor, 1842

    From the Galway Vindicator and Connaught Advertiser, 20 April 1842: “Mr Robert Caldwell, a respectable attorney, was… charged with having… attempted by force to violate Anne Corbet, the wife of Mr Edward Lestrange Corbet, barrister. Mrs Corbet… deposed that she met Mr Caldwell for the first time in Sept.1840…  Mr…

  • Do Not Covet a Barrister’s Wife, 1862

    From the Usk Observer, 19 July 1862: “The Dublin papers announce the death of a person named Sterne, who had been imprisoned for debt in the Four Courts Marshalsea for 36 years. Mr Sterne was a gentleman of large fortune… a gentleman of fashion as well as a ‘fast’ man…

  • Unacceptable Sanitary and Timekeeping Arrangements, 1874

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 13 October 1874: “The Barristers’ Library is a crying disgrace… Barristers “look up” their cases in the Library, and also use it as a “trysting place” for meeting Attorneys. The Library is a room utterly unfit for the purpose to which it is devoted. It is…

  • Young Bar Fracas, 1829

    From the Belfast Newsletter, 6 November 1829: “On Saturday morning, at four o’clock, Mr Scully, the barrister, accompanied by Mr Blake, of Galway, and his brother-in-law, Mr R. Browne, were taking oysters, in Duke Street, Dublin, and entered into conversation with the Rev. Mr Grady, Mr Armstrong and Mr C.…

  • The Gambling Devil, 1836

    For young 19th century lawyers not yet able to afford their own carriages, the daily trip to the Four Courts not only posed health and safety risks but also – in circumstances where it was impossible to reach Inns Quay without passing at least one of the numerous gambling dens…

  • A ‘Seduction’ and its Consequences, 1830

    A tragic story from the Pilot, 12 April 1830: “On Friday a child only about fourteen years old, and small for her age, appeared before the magistrates at College Street Police-office, to charge an unfortunate associate in crime with having taken two shillings from her the previous night. When questioned…

  • Barrister Kills Solicitor, Becomes Attorney-General, 1814

    Regrettable personal differences often arise between Irish barristers and solicitors. Fortunately, not all end as tragically as this dispute reported in the London Courier & Evening Gazette of 19 February 1814:- “On Saturday evening… a meeting took place on the Strand in Sandymount, between [recently qualified barrister] Counsellor Hatchell and…

  • Barrister-Barrister Shooting, 1815

    In addition to shooting solicitors they did not agree with, early Irish barristers also occasionally settled by force of arms disputes between themselves. One example is reported in the Dublin Correspondent, 9 May 1815: “In consequence of some warm language which passed in the Four Courts yesterday, between Messrs Wallace…

  • Barristers’ Bags Stolen and Recovered, 1853

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 7 June 1853: “A man named John Whitaker was… charged with having stolen a large number of briefs and a law book the property of Messrs. Robinson, QC, Robert Owen Lawson, JF Martley and McCarthy, barristers. It appeared that a person named McDonnell had been employed…