Legal Disputes
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Counsel for the Defence Skilfully Evades Challenge to a Duel to Secure Ireland’s Most Infamous Bigamy Acquittal, 1846
From the Annual Register of World Events, this account of a remarkable bigamy trial (or trials) in the Dublin Commission Court in 1846, culminating in a challenge to a duel issued by the prosecution solicitor to leading defence counsel. In… Continue reading
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Cases of the Four Courts No 5: Where There’s a Will There’s a Way – the Story of Courtesan and Serial Litigant Anna Maria Bennett Little
Meet Anna Maria Bennett Little, the 19th century butcher’s daughter/milliner turned courtesan whose Irish protectors kept dying – only to have her produce a will (in one case, two!) made by them in her favour! Litigation associated, directly or indirectly,… Continue reading
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Cases of the Four Courts No 4: The Seduction of a Dean’s Daughter – Adams v Dundas, 1831
A caddish but highly eligible army officer seduces the naive daughter of the Dean of Cashel during the family’s annual seaside holiday in County Louth, only to find himself a defendant in an action brought by the Dean under the… Continue reading
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Cases of the Four Courts No. 3: Not Chloroform, but Too Gross to Speak of -Travers v Wilde, 1864
Not chloroform but too gross to talk about…the 1864 case of Travers v Wilde unleashed an avalanche of evidence disclosing caddish behaviour -and worse – on the part of Oscar Wilde’s father Sir William towards a young patient Mary Josephine… Continue reading
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Cases of the Four Courts No. 2: The Insane Delusion of Christopher Neville Bagot
Paternity, potency and venereal disease in the Dublin Probate Court – this video deals with Bagot v Bagot, a case relating to the will of Gold Rush millionaire and serial womaniser Christopher Neville Bagot, who excluded from his will his… Continue reading
