@ruthcannon.bsky.social
Irish barrister sharing historical accounts and images of the Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland. Past posts archived at http://ruthcannon.com.
Ireland's most famous bigamist was a woman, Mary Jane Scott, who escaped the arm of the law thanks to her defence counsel, Isaac Butt (below) subsequently challenged by the prosecution solicitor to a duel. But there would be no pistols at dawn! More here: ruthcannon.com/2025/11/03/c...
03.11.2025 12:05 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Consternation at Clonmel Station (below) in 1898 when two elderly judges marooned there by railway difficulties requested a cup of tea. Luckily Mrs Daniel Leahy stepped in to save the day. Later, she received a large, shiny present... Read this sweet vignette here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/10/22/2...
When the Irish Bar (including infamous Leonard McNally, betrayer of Robert Emmet) rallied together as a body in Kilmainham Courthouse to voluntarily offer legal aid to a child of under 10 charged with stealing a loaf of bread...
ruthcannon.com/2025/10/09/i...
The Four Courts, Dublin, after the destruction of the Ormond Bridge in the Great Storm of 1802. Ferries carried passengers across the river until a new bridge was constructed. The sentry box probably belonged to one of the famous Charley: ruthcannon.com/2023/01/11/t...
Image via British Library.
From the Daily News, 17 July 1922, a photograph showing the Fire Brigade clearing up the remains of the Four Courts during the Irish Civil War. Archive link below for a story
about how the rebels audaciously rescued their flag under the nose of the Fire Brigade.
ruthcannon.com/2022/01/05/f...
An early example of lawyer-bashing may be found in an Evening Herald report of a Clare County Council meeting of 1949, when a number of counsellors vociferously opposed the re-upholstering of barristers' benches in lovely Ennis Courthouse (below). Read it all here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/29/c...
The heartfelt welcome given to Judge Cahir Davitt in Tullamore in 1946 painted an evocative picture of the judge appearing there 30 years earlier as a 'dark-haired, handsome... modest, bright-eyed, and chivalrous boy.' Follow the link below to find out more:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/25/a...
The below article records the leap from the Law Library to the silver screen of Irish barrister and movie star Edward George Little, better known under his stage name Edward Lexy (1897-1970). More about him here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/24/f...
Normally Cockney criminals chose their prey first, but the ebullience of 19c Irish lawyers visiting London was such that they actually introduced themselves to the criminal - read on for an account of one such incident in New Oxford Street in 1907:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/23/i...
Although Irish judges, punning, and Catholicism might seem unlikely bedfellows, all three coalesced in early 19th century Ireland to sometimes magnificent effect. Read about it all here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/22/p...
Tragedy turns to violence in the Dublin Coronerβs court in this story from the Strathearn Herald of 11 May 1878 as the brother of a pregnant suicide victim seeks to wreak physical vengeance on her employer and alleged seducer. More here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/16/i...
From the Sphere, 23 May 1936, this photograph of Irish solicitor TG 'George' McVeagh competing in the Davis Cup of the same year. The firm established by him in Kildare Street survived into this century. More on McVeagh here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...
The new Irish Family Law Courts are slated for the below site at 167-9 Church Street, Dublin - but is there anything in the history of the site conducive or otherwise to remedying marital disharmony? Find out here: ruthcannon.com/2025/07/14/n...
14.07.2025 15:14 β π 4 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
A very young barrister, apprehended for 'midnight vocalism' at Beresford Place (below) near Dublin's infamous Monto, defends himself in the Dublin Police Court of 1887. Will he get off? What will happen to his career? Find out what happened to Charles Dunne BL here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/09/m...
Researchers on longevity may be interested in Mr Condy Boyle, of Dungloe, Donegal, who served as court crier at Lifford Courthouse (image below) for 75 years between 1834 and 1909. Charming and multi-talented Mr Boyle had an interesting family history. More here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/08/a...
Drama in 1879 as a moneylender flees the Four Courts to escape an angry crowd. More on Thomas Joyce and the Accommodation Bank here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/07/07/n...
From the Irish Independent, 8 November 1930, via British Newspaper Archives. a very nice-looking group of new Irish barristers. George D Murnaghan later became a formidable High Court judge, and is remembered for having sentenced the last man hanged in Ireland (Michael Manning, 1954).
Image
I had the pleasure this week of taking a lovely group of visitors through Ireland's iconic Four Courts. As there were no handouts, I said I would put the content of the tour up online. My bird's eye view of the history of this building is at the link below:
ruthcannon.com/2025/06/28/a...
Some real-life compatriots of 'Miss Flite,' Dickens' eccentric lady litigant depicted on far left in image below, included Monaghan's Margaret McManus, a well-known figure around the Four Courts. More on Margaret and her even more eccentric English contemporary here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/06/23/m...
Circuit practice around Ireland has always been a feature of the Irish Bar. This clipping from the 1904 Irish Jurist shows that, long before the idea of photographs of barristers being published on a website, Circuit barristers were preparing composites to ensure they could be identified easily!
19.06.2025 09:41 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
Miler, the one-tune ballad-singer in the long grey coat who counted the railings around the Four Courts every Sabbath without fail, was just one of a number of non-legal eccentrics associated with the pre-1922 Four Courts. Read about him here: ruthcannon.com/2025/06/05/m...
05.06.2025 10:18 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. Diagonal view across the River Liffey at the Four Courts building, its large dome set against the canary smokey yellow sky. Buildings to the right are a short terrace of 2 buildings, with a light purple building on left, 3 narrow windows wide, and a red shop front. Building adjoining on its right is 3 narrow windows wide, light brown upper stories and grey shop front with red trim. Both buildings have light corner stones and slate roofs of varying blues and three chimneys. Truncated on the right edge is beginning of new modern building, with pale turquoise floor at street level and off-white upper storeys with extra long very dark windows and no sills. All buildings are behind the blue-lilac grey stone river wall along the quay. Bridge with arches and balustrade rises in a humpback and disappears on the left truncated at one and a half arches, while beyond it are columns of the portico of the Four Courts and trees out front by the river wall. Liffey is dappled with horizontal strokes reflecting the wall, bridge, buildings and sky, albeit blue and white rather than yellow. Signed top right in red, Liam Daly
Here, have a #painting. "Four Courts from the East" came out of going past a scene in my native Dublin a million times, which I'll admit is a suspiciously round number. #SpeirGorm #ArtYear
23.05.2025 17:39 β π 111 π 11 π¬ 2 π 0
Landscape format in acrylics on canvas depicting a three elliptical-arch stone bridge rendered in warm greys of green and yellow. It has an inset dark narrow arched hollow in each of the two central piers, and a balustrade on top. Behind it from the left is Arran Quay with its red-brick 4-storey buildings and a couple of white ones, punctuated by the grey stone narrow bank building with front gable and a single storey addition to its left. Buildings have narrow windows with grey sills and a grey cap stone along the top before a blue slated roof with red brick chimneys. Some buildings further down the quay have grey corner stones. Further along just to the right of the centre of the painting is a grey stone church with a pale green dome on top of its steeple rising up against the sky while behind it to the right lower down is the much larger dome of the Four Courts from the next quay after the river bends to the left. Further along on the right side of the river by the right edge of the painting is the modern grey block that is the former Central Bank with its distinctive horizontal concrete bands between the dark bands of windows. It's a sunny day so the sky is pure light blue with a tinge of turquoise. The water is very still so we see reflections of the darkness of the underside of the arches as well as the various red-brick buildings, and the odd white one, along the quay on the left. Horizontal strokes indicate gentle rippling. Trees are on the right edge with thick clumps of green and dark foliage. Signed bottom left, Liam Daly
Another #painting "Mellows Bridge II". Because of Arran Quay with the church of St Paul and the Bank of Ireland building. And the Four Courts dome. And I still like what used to be our Central Bank. But Mellows bridge is really what this painting is about. I think itβs a beauty. #SpeirGorm #ArtYear
04.06.2025 21:09 β π 42 π 5 π¬ 2 π 0
Among library correspondence for 1958, there is a letter from @deptjusticeirl.bsky.social permitting the import of prohibited publication 'Borstal Boy' by Brendan #Behan. Locating our copy, the inside cover confirms purchase 'under licence from the Minister for Justice'! #censorship #IrishAuthors
03.06.2025 17:08 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
An evocative account from the Belfast News-Letter of 7 February 1823 of public attendance at the Four Courts for a prosecution for conspiracy to injure the Lord Lieutenant by throwing a bottle at him at the Theatre Royal, Hawkins Street. More here:
ruthcannonbarristerhistory.com/2025/06/04/e...
Future Lord Chancellor of Ireland William Conyingham Plunket repeatedly sued over claims that he acted improperly in prosecuting Irish revolutionary Robert Emmet, given his previous friendship with the Emmet family. But were the claims justified? Read on & decide:
ruthcannon.com/2025/06/03/f...
The Cork Slander Case of 1908-9 brought by a great-great uncle of Princess Diana had everything an aficionado of Edwardian litigation could require, and was one of the only Irish trials ever to be recorded by in-court photography. Read about it here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/05/30/w...
19c High Court judges went on assizes to counties throughout Ireland several times a year, usually to much fanfare, often involving a brass band on arrival. But in 1887, Carlow Town Commissioners voted against cleaning the streets for the arrival of Baron Dowse (image b-r) Find out why below!
29.05.2025 15:57 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
The image below is of Welbore Ellis MP, the owner of a large amount of property at Oxmantown, Dublin, and the man who cleverly negotiated the location of the Four Courts on Inns Quay, purely for his personal gain! Read about his bargaining chip here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/05/28/t...
Midlife fitness is nothing new, as demonstrated by a mature Stephen's Green pickpocket who gave authorities a merry chase round the back of the Four Courts in 1893 before running into 'Bill' Stratford, the Lugs Branigan of his day! Read it all here:
ruthcannon.com/2025/05/27/a...
Image: Istock.
