From the Daily News (London) 28 September 1905, this story about the famous Irish advocate John Philpot Curran (above) who resided at 4 Ely Place, Dublin (below).

“Mr George Moore, the novelist, was presented to our readers on Monday in the engaging light of an active resister against the educational powers in Ireland, determined not only to inculcate a strike of school children, but to go forth himself and act as a hedge-schoolmaster.  This remarkable note of rebellion was sent forth from the house in Ely-place, in Dublin… formerly the home of John Philpott (sic) Curran, the renowned orator and lawyer. Thereby hangs an interesting tale of a very successful piece of passive resistance.

John Philpott Curran had a brother, whose sole success in life consisted in getting money from the eminent advocate.  The time came when John Philpott decided on a strike against further subsidies to the scapegrace.  He sent him word that under no circumstances would he give him a penny again.  But he reckoned against the ingenuity of his impecunious relative.

Ely Place, be it known, was then as now a fashionable quarter of Dublin.  Great folk in carriages were accustomed to drive up to the home of John Philpott Curran.  One day the callers noticed that a cobbler’s stall had been erected right opposite the door of Curran’s residence, and in the stall, busy at mending brogues, was Curran’s own brother.  Worse than that, the villain had put up a large sign announcing that his brother lived in the house opposite!  His determination notwithstanding, Curran was forced to surrender unconditionally, and he had to pay the scapegrace handsomely for removing the cobbler’s stall and himself from before his door.”