Intriguing Cases
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Trinity College Italian Professor Sacked for Illiteracy Sues Colleagues for Defamation, 1856
From the Cork Constitution, 7 August 1856: “THE TRINITY COLLEGE ITALIAN PROFESSOR (From the Daily News) A singular case, not unlikely to be numbered among the cause célèbres, has just been tried at the summer assizes in the County of… Continue reading
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Would-Be Visitor to Eamon de Valera Sets Fire to Padded Cell in Bridewell Garda Station, 1929
From the Irish Independent, 9th March 1929, a remarkable story featuring a young man with an asserted connection to Irish politician Éamon de Valera, who set fire to the padded cell in the Bridewell Garda station behind the Four Courts… Continue reading
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Sister Act as Governess Represents Herself in Proceedings for Breach of Promise and Child Support, 1882
A fascinating account from the Cheshire Observer, 28 January 1882, of a claim for breach of promise and child support by a many-sistered governess ‘ruined’ by a member of the Stephen’s Street Club. Eye-contact in Grafton Street followed by champagne… Continue reading
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Unfit for Publication: The Criminal Conversation Case of Wilson v Webb, 1870
From the London Evening Standard, 10 December 1870: “Dublin is becoming unenviably famous for divorce and criminal conversation cases of an extraordinary nature. The recent suit of Taylor v Taylor is thrown into the shade by Wilson v Webb, now… Continue reading
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Death in Court: the Suicide of William Jackson, 1795
From the Leeds Times, 31 August 1867, this account, originally published in All the Year Round, of the death of the Reverend William Jackson in the Court of King’s Bench in the old Four Courts in Christchurch, just as the… Continue reading