Ruth Cannon BL, Barrister, Four Courts History
Sharing old stories from Ireland's historic centre of justice.
From the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 17 March 1927:
“A remarkable story of the perpetration of frauds on many prominent people both in this country and in Ireland was told at Highgate yesterday, when John LM Reddington, alias Edward McLaughlin (59), of 451 Archway Road, Highgate, was charged with obtaining £1 by false pretences from Mr Andrew Charles O’Connor, formerly Master of the Rolls In Ireland and further with obtaining £25 by false pretences from the Benevolent Society
From the Dublin Evening Post, 26 August 1826:
“A young lady, moving in a respectable situation in life, was on Thursday committed to Newgate, Dublin, on a charge of shop-lifting. The circumstances of this case are rather curious, and possess in some respect a melancholy interest. This lady was to have been married on the very day that consigned her to disgrace and imprisonment, to an ignominious trial and punishment – for of her guilt, I fear, there is little doubt.
The original Record Office designed for the Four Courts site by Thomas Cooley did not include a dome, but Cooley’s early death in 1784 coincided with an official decision to expand his design to include the Irish Four Courts, previously situate at Christchurch. His successor James Gandon achieved this by incorporating a central hall at the front of Cooley’s partly built pile, and crowning it with not one but two domes, one on top of the other, with a void between containing a large
From the Cork Examiner, 17 March 1864:
“CORK SPRING ASSIZES (before Mr Justice Keogh) – BAR PRIVILEGE
Mary Sullivan was indicted for stealing a letter from the Post-office.
Mr Coffey defended the prisoner. Messrs Clarke QC and Brereton QC, instructed by the Post-office department, prosecuted.
Mr Coffey said that he wished to know if the prosecutors were going to proceed with the case in the absence of junior counsel.
Mr Brereton – We are directed by the Attorney –General to prosecute.
Mr
From the Cork Constitution, 5 March 1896:
“DUBLIN WEDNESDAY
To-day the Master of the Rolls had before him a case which brought to light a modern Enoch Arden. In 1866 William Henry Boyle, son of a well-known barrister, emigrated to America, leaving his young wife at home. Fortune did not smile on him, and he did not send for his wife. He ceased to write, and for many years his family had heard nothing of him, and at length assumed that he was dead. In this belief his wife married again,
