Ruth Cannon BL, Barrister, Four Courts History
Sharing old stories from Ireland's historic centre of justice.
From the Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Advertiser, 25 May 1861:
“THE DEAD ALIVE – EXTRAORDINARY CASE
Some years ago, in Dublin, a husband and wife, it appears, took it into their heads to possess themselves of £500 which had been left as a legacy to the wife, under the condition that she should receive the interest during her life, and be at liberty to bequeath the principal to any friend at her death. Being anxious, it appears to obtain the principal, it was arranged that she
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 Courts too. The story is told in the Memoirs of William Bennett Campion, Serjeant-at-Law. Shortly after the erection of the bells of
From the Freeman’s Journal, 19 February 1921:
TREASURE HUNTERS HAUNTS
Reminiscences of Dublin’s Old Book Stores
(By M. M. O’H.)
“The old bookshops of Dublin! What a vista of pleasant thoughts they create. What delightful experiences of eager prowlings round their shelves, of unexpected ‘finds,’ of surprising bargains, of staunch friends acquired at trifling cost, of jostlings with ardent book-hunters – poets and prosewriters, judges, doctors, artists, musicians, a formidable
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 a ‘Charley’ he had sought to reprimand:
“THE CHARLEYS
OR
THE OLD DUBLIN WATCH
Could the good citizen, who, gazing today on the stalwart form of the Dublin Metropolitan policeman as
From the Donegal Independent, 14 May 1909 and the Irish News and Belfast Morning News, 8 May 1909:
“AN ACTRESS’S SKIRTS
The jury in the Nisi Prius Court, Dublin failed to agree to a verdict in an action brought by Miss Minnie Cunningham, burlesque actress, against two companies owning theatres in Dublin and Belfast, and were discharged.
Miss Cunningham had been engaged to play the principal girl in the pantomime of ‘Jack and Jill’, which was produced last Christmas season in Belfast and
