A fascinating story from the Kerry Reporter of 2 February 1907, about an early 19th century Irish judge forced to marry his mistress.

Then, as now, they do things differently in Kerry, and what made this shotgun wedding particularly unusual was that the gun in question belonged to the couple’s son, who had been refused satisfaction by a man who had insulted him, on the basis that he ‘would not fight a bastard’.

Although tactfully described only as ‘Judge X,’ the judge appears to have been Mr Justice Day (above), a Kerryman who served on the Irish Court of King’s Bench between 1798-1818, regularly appearing at the Assizes in Tralee. There are some details of his progeny here.

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