Ruth Cannon BL, Barrister, Four Courts History
Sharing old stories from Ireland's historic centre of justice.
In 1878, Charlotte Lodge, a woman working in what was then Dublin’s most notorious red light district, Bull Lane, just behind the Four Courts, died in the Richmond Hospital following a vicious attack and gang-rape by local pimps.
Charlotte’s attackers were subsequently acquitted of her murder after an extremely favourable summing up by newly appointed Lord
One evening in August 1900, a Dublin woman leaves her home near the Grand Canal to travel to the Convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor nearby. She brings with her four things: a bill-hook, two knives and a sword. The woman – Mary Halpin from Kilmainham, better known as ‘Mary Ha’penny’ – ends up in the Dublin Police Court.
Just one incident in the life of one of Dublin’s most fascinating forgotten residents, Mary Ha’penny, detailed in the 4-5 minute
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 of Leeson-Street Bridge, yesterday morning. It is believed that the unfortunate gentleman accidentally fell into the water and drowned. The previous afternoon he left his residence, at Stephen’s
In 1824, a lovelorn young man employs a rising young barrister to make a very strange application in Dublin’s Four Courts… A 3-4 minute video recounting a true story. Check out a newspaper report of it here: https://ruthcannon.com/2020/03/25/whe…
From the Freeman’s Journal, 14 July 1876:
“Three young men, one named William Donahoe, who stood in the Dock, and two others, Thomas Kinsella, and William Hurley, were indicted for an assault on three constables. Constable William Hatton, 59A, stated that on Sunday night, the 28th of May, between 9 and 10 o’clock, a band playing, followed by three or four hundred persons, passed through Kevin-Street towards Mark’s-Alley; the traverser Kinsella was the conductor of the band…
Witness
