Barristers
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Martyn’s ‘The Place-Hunters’: A Forgotten Play Set in the Law Library of 1902
On July 28, 1902, the Dublin Leader published the entirety of a one-act play by Edward Martyn, ‘The Place-Hunters,’ set in the Law Library of the time and satirising Irish barristers’ struggle between principle on the one hand and personal benefit… Continue reading
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Mr English’s Wig-Powdering Chamber at the Old Four Courts, 1780
A 1780 advert in the Dublin Evening Post from Mr English, wig-seller, referencing his dressing room at the rear door of the old Four Courts in Christchurch, where Irish barristers of the period could get their wigs powdered daily. Although… Continue reading
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Barrister Summoned for Failure to Certify Cook as Honest, 1817
A tale, from the days when Irish barristers were still addressed as ‘Counsellor’, of a barrister from Dorset Street, a popular street for legal residences of the time, summoned for failure to provide a good character for a cook who… Continue reading
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The Cross-Examination Technique of Isaac Butt QC, 1866
An interesting article from the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal of 1 March 1866 describing the cross-examination technique of 19th century Irish barrister and politician Isaac Butt QC, MP, who favoured bombarding a witness under cross-examination with extremely rapid, quickfire questions.… Continue reading
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A Medico-Legal Elopement, c.1827
From the Dublin Daily Express, Tuesday 19 June 1906, an account by Mrs. Power O’Donoghue of a medico-legal elopement effected by barge along the Grand Canal, County Kildare, c. 1830 or so. “The marriage of Lord Ninian Crichton Stuart and… Continue reading