Sexual offences
-
A Letter from Malcolm Johnston, Key Prosecution Witness in the Dublin Scandals, 1884
This rather explicit letter from 20 year old Malcolm Johnston, heir to Johnston’s Bakery, Ballsbridge, to James Pillar, a Rathmines wine and tea merchant three times his age, was included in the brief to Counsel in the Dublin Scandals trials… Continue reading
-
The Dublin Scandals: The Rise and Fall of Inspector James Ellis French, 1858-1884
Out of the eight men put on trial for homosexual offences in the Dublin Scandals of 1884, two of them – Gustavus Cornwall, the head of the Irish Post Office and James Ellis French – head of the Intelligence Department… Continue reading
-
The Dublin Scandals – Timeline and Dramatis Personae
That phenomenon of litigation and prosecution which became known as ‘the Dublin Scandals’ commenced in 1883 with a series of articles published by William O’Brien M.P. in his journal ‘United Ireland’. The articles were directed at James Ellis French, chief… Continue reading
-
Nothing New Under the Sun: 56 Rathmines Road, James Pillar and the Prosecution Brief in the Dublin Scandals of 1884
Ireland had its own Epstein scandal in 1884. No island was involved, but rather a grocery shop run by James Pillar at 56 Rathmines Road, Dublin, where, in the evening, its owner offered to a different set of customers the… Continue reading
-
Outrage in the Bloody Fields, 1861
The 1861 trial of Dublin cabman John Curran for indecent assault on a young passenger, Louisa Jolly, transfixed mid-Victorian Ireland. The trial involved interesting issues relating to identification evidence, and reports and commentary associated with it give a fascinating insight… Continue reading