Ruth Cannon BL, Barrister, Four Courts History

From the Evening Herald, 21 January 1918:

“’When We Were Boys’

School Day Yarns by Irish Judges in Railway Action.

Interesting little stories of ‘our boyhood days’ order were related today in the King’s Bench Division, Dublin during the hearing of… the case of the Great Northern Railway v Crawford… an appeal by the railway company from a decision of the magistrates at Lisburn Petty Sessions on the 18th October last, dismissing on the merits their summons against the respondent, Mr Crawford, a commercial traveller, charging him with having attempted to board a train while it was in motion at Lisburn station on the 8th of September inst., contrary to the bye-laws.

 Mr Andrews (instructed by Messrs. Wellington Young & Son) appeared for the appellants and Mr Whittaker (instructed by Mr Macginnis) for the respondent.

The Lord Chief Justice, having heard the nature of the case, said that if a railway company was ever known to prosecute a person who succeeded in entering a train while in motion (laughter) it was only done in his experience in cases in which there was any possibility of a person proceeding against them for injuries. His lordship added that when he was going to school, he had been in the habit of jumping into and out of trains for seven years travelling between Kingstown and Dublin, and no notice was taken by the company until he fell on one occasion (laughter).

Mr Justice Gibson told how he had, when at the Bar, obtained a verdict against a railway company for damages, because they did not keep a sufficient staff of officials at a certain railway station, much frequented by schoolboys not always flush of  funds, to prevent them from getting in and out of train in motion.  But, his lordship added, the verdict was set aside at once (laughter).

In the present case it appeared that Mr Crawford arrived in Lisburn by the Derry train in the afternoon and deposited his traps on the platform. When asked by the ticket collector (George Tombe) where he was for, he replied: ‘Lisburn.’ The ticket collector then gave the signal to start to a motor train which had been awaiting the arrival of the Derry train and was proceeding to Antrim.

Mr Crawford then, upon picking up two of his bags, rushed after the departing train, going in the direction of a second-class carriage. The ticket-collector ran after him, overtaking him after he had run about twelve yards, and before he got into the carriage, which he did not touch in any way. When the ticket collector overtook him, Mr Crawford, it was stated, assaulted him by striking him with one of the bags on the breast; and he succeeded in saving himself by catching the brass rail at the carriage door.

The magistrates dismissed the case because they thought that the charge of attempting to enter the carriage was not proved in as much as the defendant had not physically touched the carriage.

The court now held that the magistrates were wrong in their decision and sent the case back to them for reconsideration being of opinion that the attempt to enter the train had been made by the defendant when he started to run after it. They allowed costs to the company.”

Further investigations confirm that the then Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Sir James Campbell, later Lord Glenavy, would have regularly travelled by train between his home in Dublin and his place of education, Dr Stacpoole’s school, Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) throughout the 1860s.

Glenavy’s impromptu confession of multiple breaches of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway bye-laws during this period did not impede his subsequent elevation to the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Nor did his achievements end with his relinquishment of that office in 1921. After the creation of the Irish Free State, his recommendations as Chairman of the Judicial Committee appointed to advise its Executive Council on the creation of a new courts structure were central to the creation of the legal system still subsisting in Ireland to this day. Opinions differ as to the merits of Glenavy’s recommendation (adopted) that the judicial costume of the old regime be largely retained. The issue is discussed in an excellent article by James I Dougherty in 18(3) History Ireland (May/June 2010), available to read free of charge here.

Did Glenavy always have a ticket in his pocket when he jumped, or was he one of that miscreant class of schoolboy fare-evaders highlighted by his colleague Mr Justice Gibson? We may never know, but we can be sure that his engaging candour would have been greatly appreciated by his grandson, journalist Patrick Campbell, who humorously references his own legal heritage in the below interview (at 6.00).

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From the Dundee Courier, 23 September 1932:

“IRISH BARRISTER IN TROUBLE

CELEBRATED SCOTT CENTENARY IN DUNDEE

DISTURBANCE WITH TAXI DRIVER AND AT HOTEL

An Irish barrister, who was said to have celebrated the centenary of Sir Walter Scott too heartily, appeared at Dundee Police Court yesterday on two charges of breach of the peace. 

Accused was wearing a Glengarry bonnet.

He was Michael O’Connor (55), 7 Crichton Street, Dundee, and he was charged with having on 16th of September in Nethergate ,and on the following day at the door of the hotel, 40 Roseangle, occupied by Mrs Hill, committed a breach of the peace.

Dealing with the first charge, Mr A Bell, the fiscal, said that accused hired a taxi from the Nethergate stance and was driven about the centre of the town, shopping.  The driver was waiting for him in Nethergate when he returned with a shabbily dressed man. The driver refused to have this man as a passenger.

O’Connor thereupon created a disturbance and cursed and swore.  A large crowd gathered.

 The police were called, and O’Connor was apprehended.

In the second instance, Mrs Hill, the proprietrix of the hotel, stated that the accused engaged a room. There was some dispute about his bill, and he paid part of it, stating that he would return and pay the balance. 

BRANDISHING STICK

He did so, though not on the date fixed. He arrived simultaneously with Mrs Hill.  She hurried to get in first and accused followed brandishing his walking stick about his head.  

the hotel people were put into a state of great fear and alarm

Mr John Ross, solicitor, on accused’s behalf, said it was unfortunate to see a man of  the accused’s professional standing at the bar of the Police Court, pleading guilty to such charges as those.  

It appeared from what he said that he was a great admirer of Sir Walter Scott and, hearing that the centenary celebrations were coming off, he decided to attend them personally.

The unfortunate thing was that accused celebrated just too heartily.  

‘The whole cause of the trouble, ;Mr Ross added, ‘is that he is an exuberant Irishman and whiskey on the top of exuberant Irish spirits is fatal.’

He came to Dundee over a week ago and put up first in the hotel and later in another in the centre of town.

This shabbily dressed man told him a tale of woe, with the result that accused gave him a drink and promised to take him home. The taxi driver did him a good turn by refusing to have this man in the car.  

Accused had paid all his debts in the city.  If anything, he had overpaid them. In view of all this Mr Ross suggested to Police Judge Carnegie that accused should be dismissed without a conviction being recorded

Police Judge Carnegie said it was gratifying to hear that an Irishman had such an interest in Scott. He did not know what liberties are allowed in the country to which O’Connor belonged.

As no one was the worse of his escapades, and as he was a stranger to the city, the magistrate said he was to take advantage of the section of the act and allow him to go.

‘I am not so sure that we would get the same consideration in your country,’ said Police Judge Carnegie as accused left the court.”

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From the Westmeath Independent, 8 May 1852:

“MAY DAY IN THE OLDEN TIME

The preparations for the May Day sports and ceremonial in Dublin commenced about the middle of April, and even earlier, and a rivalry, which often led to the most fearful riots, was incited, particularly between the ‘Liberty boys’ upon the south and the ‘Ormond boys’ upon the north side of the river, and even among themselves, as to which street or district would exhibit the best dressed and handsomest May bush, or could boast the largest and hottest bonfire.  Upon one of the popular outbreaks resulting from the abduction of a May bush, was written the song, in old Dublin slang of

‘De nite afore de fust of Magay,’

so spiritedly described in that graphic record of the past, ‘Sketches of Ireland Sixty Years Ago,’ now republished as part of this series. 

For weeks before a parcel of idle scamps, male and female, devoted themselves to the task of ‘collecting for the May’ and parties, decorated with ribbons, and carrying green boughs, and sometimes escorted by itinerant musicians, went from house to house soliciting contributions of ribbons, handkerchiefs, and pieces of gaudy silk – materials then manufactured, and consequently more common in. the Liberty than now – to adorn the May bush.  Turf, coals, old bones, particularly slugs of cow’s horns from the tan yards, and horses’ head from the knackers, logs of wood etc., were also collected to which some of the merchants generally added a few pitch and tar-barrels.  Money was solicited to ‘moisten the clay’ of the revellers, for, whether from liking or from fear, or considering it unlucky, few ventured to refuse to contribute ‘something to de May bush.’ 

The ignitable materials were formed in depots in back yards, and the cellars of old houses, long before the approaching festival and several sorties were made by opposing factions to gain possession of these hordes, and live have been lost in the skirmishes which ensured.  In Dublin the bonfires were always lighted upon the evening of May Day, and generally in the vicinity of the May bush.  The great fire was, as we already mentioned, at the lower end of the Coombe, but there were also fires in the centre and at the top of that classic locality.  The weavers had their fire in Weavers Square, the hatters and pipe makers in the upper end of James’s street and the neighbourhood of St John’s Well, near Kilmainham, beside Bully’s Acre, generally exhibited a towering blaze.  Upon the north side of the city the best fire blazed in Smithfield. 

With the exception of one ancient rite – that of throwing into the fire the May Bush – there were but few Pagan ceremonies observed at the metropolitan fires.  A vast crowd collected whiskey was distributed galore both to those who had, and had not, gathered the morning’s dew.  The entire population of the district collected round the bush and the fire, the elder portion, men and women bringing with them chairs or stools to sit out the wake of the winter and spring according to the olden useage, the best singers in the crowd lilted up ‘The night before Larry was Stretched,’ or ‘Hie for de Sweet Libertie’ but the then popular air of ‘the Baiting of Lord Altham’s Bull,’ and ‘De May Bush’, another local song of triumphal commemoration of a victory over the Ormond Market men, a verse of which we remember

‘Begon, ye cowardly scoundrels

Do you remember the day

Dat yes came down to Newmarket

And stole de sweet May bush away,’

were the most popular and deservedly admired’ from their allusions to the season and the locality.  Fiddlers and pipers plied their fingers and elbows, and dancing, shouting revelry and debauchery of every description succeeded, till, at an advanced hour of the night, the scene partook more of the nature of the ancient Saturnalia than anything we can at present liken it to, except that which a London mob now exhibits the night preceding an execution in the Old Baily or at Horsemonger-Lane Gaol.”

We find further details of the ballads ‘Lord Althams Bull’ and ‘The May Bush’ in the Dublin Daily Express of 10 October 1893 which states that

“The slang ballad ‘Lord Altham’s Bull’ seems to commemorate a raid made by ‘the boys’ on some lands at Kilmainham for the purpose of seizing a bull to provide entertainment to the populace in Corn-market.  It records that

‘On the fust of sweet Magay

It being a high holiday

Six and twenty boys of de straw

Went to take Lord Altham’s bull away.’

The poet then goes on to narrate the passage of the boys and the ‘mosey’ (or bull) through the popular part of the city

‘We drove de bull tro many a gap

And kept him going many a mile

But when we came to Kilmainham lands

We let de mosey rest awhile

We drove de bull down sweet Truck Street

Widout either dread or fear

When out ran Mosey Creathorn’s bitch

And cotched de bull by de ear

We drove de bull down Cornmarket

As all de world might see

When brave Teddy Foy trust his nose tro de bars

Crying High for de sweet Liberty.’

It may be explained that old Newgate stood in Cornmarket, and Teddy Foy was evidently one of the prisoners. The ballad continues

‘De mosey look down Plunket street

Where de clothes on de pegs were hanging

Oh! Den he laid about wid his nob

De shifts about him banging

Lord Altham is a very bad man

As all de neighbours know

For driving white Roger from Kilmainham lands

We all to Virginy must go”

Six of the six-and twenty boys were evidently sent to transportation for their share in this exploit. As Lord Altham’s Ball embalms an old custom which has been etingut singe about the year 1798, ‘De May bush’… celebrates the victory of the Liberty’ weavers over the Ormond butchers in the following terms:

‘De nite before de fust of Magay

Ri rigidi riri dum dee

We all did agree widout any delay

To cut a May-bush so we pegged away

Ri rigidi dum dee’

The ‘boys’ were under the leadership of a Bill Durham, a noted Ormond ‘tough’ and when the tree was cut down it was brought back in triumph with Bill astride it

‘Bill Durham, he sat astride on his bush

Ri rigidi riri dum dee

And dere he keep singing as sweet as a trush

His faulchin in one hand his pipe in his mush

Ri ridgidi dum di’

An over-indulgence in the liquor which flowed merrily around ‘de bush’ prevented the butchers guarding their treasure with property vigilance, and as a result the Liberty boys stole in, cut down the trophy and carried  away. The picture drawn of Bill Durham’s rage is most graphic:

‘Bill Durham being up de nite before

Was now in his flea park taking a snore

When he heard de mob pass by his door

Den over his shoulders his flesh bag he threw

And out of the cimbley his faulchin he drew

And, mad as a hatter, down May Lane he flew

Wid his had in his hand, by way of a shield

He kept all along cryin out ‘Never yield’

But he never cried stop till he came to Smithfield

Dere finding no bush, but de watch boys all flown

Your soul’s rite Bill Durham, I’m left all alone

Be de hokey the glory of Smithfield is gone!’

Like an ancient warrior Bill vows revenge…He will drive one of the Ormond Market bulls through the bailiwick of the weavers…

‘For de loss of our bush, revenge we will get,

In de slaughtering season we’ll tip em a sweat

We’ll wallop a mosey down Mead street in tune

And we won’t leave a weaver alive in de Coombe

But we’ll rip up his tripe bag and burn his loom.’”

The remnants of this phonetically spelt ballad survive not only in the cadence of the Dublin accent but may be found in physical form all around the Four Courts today.  May Lane, down which Bill flew, runs alongside the Law Library building at 145-151 Church Street, and the name of his gang, the butchers of the Ormond Market, survives in Ormond Quay and Ormond Square on the other side of the courts.   There is an interesting merger of Dublin’s two May Day ballads in the title of the baseball movie ‘Bull Durham’.  Coincidence – or not?

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From the Southern Star, 6 February 1926, this interesting account of the trial of Herbert McBride Campbell and Wilfred Watkins for armed robbery of £70 from the Greystones sub-branch of the Northern Bank, the robbers having arrived and left on a motorcycle without disguise. The remarkable Averil Deverell BL, a Greystones woman herself, acted as barrister for one of the accused.

“Severe strictures were passed by Judge Doyle at Wicklow Circuit Court on the verdict of ‘not guilty’ brought in by a jury in the case of Wilfred Watkins, Greystones, in connection with the Greystones Bank robbery.

In the case of Herbert McBride Campbell, who, as already reported, was allowed out on bail, the plea was put forward that he was ‘morally unsound.’

Watkins was first put forward charged with armed robbery of the bank and with possession of a revolver.

Mr. Dickie, KC, who, with Miss Deverell, BL (instructed by Mr. JJL Murphy), appeared for Watkins, objected at the outset to the evidence of the other accused, Campbell, against Watkins being admitted.

Mr. Bewley, BL (instructed by Mr. A Cullen, State Solicitor) for the State, held that the evidence was admissible.

Evidence was then given by Campbell, the bank officials, and other witnesses, similar to that given at the District Court.

The jury returned a verdict of ‘not guilty’ on all counts, and his Lordship, in discharging the prisoner, said that it was a great satisfaction to him to feel he had no responsibility for that verdict.

Campbell was then put forward, and pleaded ‘guilty’.

Mr. Lupton, KC, who (instructed by Messrs. E Byrne), appeared for accused, pleaded for leniency, and submitted that the accused was morally unsound as distinct from intellectually unsound, the only plea the law allowed.  This contention was now being widely accepted.  Accused was irresponsible and unsound, very susceptible to influence and suggestion.

Evidence was given by Geo. Overend, Rev J. Tobais, Robert E Maguire, and Herbert Miller of accused’s irresponsible conduct and thoughtless practical jokes while a member of the Leeson Park troop of scouts, of which they were masters for several years.  He seemed never to consider what would be the consequences of his actions or jokes, and had no conception of pain.

Instances quoted included: Lassoing the public from a roof; running up and down a roof until he fell through it; entering a swimming race when he knew nothing of swimming, and winning the first prize, admitting afterwards that he ran on the bottom.

His father related that, when a boy, accused sustained serious injury to the eye and never told of it, and ultimately lost his eye.

Dr Leeper, mental specialist, stated he had the accused examined in Mountjoy.  He considered him unsound, and irresponsible, and egotistical.

Dr Hackett, prison doctor, said the accused was perfectly sane and capable of pleading, but he admitted he was not altogether normal or morally sound. He lacked a certain amount of responsibility, and was full of puppyism and swelled headedness.

His lordship said that he had expressed the view they were equally guilty, and, if Watkins had been found guilty, had intended sentencing them both to the same punishment – penal servitude – allowing the consideration of this question of moral unsoundness to be treated by the medical authorities while he was undergoing sentence; but in view of the fact that Watkins had been allowed to go free he could not sentence this man to imprisonment.  It would not, he believed, be fair, and might give a certain amount of encouragement to the committing of crime, in the hope that when one came to trial one would find such a jury as Watkins did.

He allowed Campbell out on his own bail of £400 and two sureties of £200, to come up for judgment when called upon within the next five years.”

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The 1861 trial of Dublin cabman John Curran for indecent assault on a young passenger, Louisa Jolly, transfixed mid-Victorian Ireland.

The trial involved interesting issues relating to identification evidence, and reports and commentary associated with it give a fascinating insight into the Dublin of the time.

My article on the trial ‘Outrage in the Bloody Fields: Cabman John Curran and the Great Dublin Rape Trial of 1861,’ recently published in Law Magazine, is now available to read free of charge here.

For those intrigued enough to dig deeper, a detailed contemporaneous report of the 1861 trial proceedings is also available here.

Or you can alternatively watch this presentation: