Sharing the History of the Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland

April 2020

  • 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,… Continue reading

  • The Pill Lane Fishwives, 1835

    From Saunders’ Newsletter, October 1835: “SIR – I beg, through the medium of your valuable Paper, to again call the attention of the Commissioners of the Paving Board to the intolerable nuisance, which has been so long suffered to continue… Continue reading

  • 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… Continue reading

  • Long Hours for Law Clerks, 1865

    From the Freeman’s Journal, 13 May 1865: “The general half-year meeting of the Attorneys and Solicitors’ Society was held yesterday in the Solicitors Hall, Four Courts [now the Law Library]… to consider the propriety of giving a half-holiday each Saturday… Continue reading

  • The Lord Chief Justice’s Phantom Coach, 1803-

    The position of Lord Chief Justice, accorded to the most senior judge of the Queen’s Bench, did not bring good luck to the first such office-holder to sit in Court 1. Lord Kilwarden, by all accounts a decent and humane… Continue reading