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ruthcannon.bsky.social
Irish barrister sharing historical accounts and images of the Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland. All past posts archived at http://ruthcannon.com.
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Litigation involving horses was a big part of the Irish legal system. One of the funniest cases was Donovan v McPherson, involving a high-kicking mare whom it took two men to mount and whose well-weathered hoof had turned the plaintiff's groom 'foolish': More here: ruthcannon.com/2025/02/21/w...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

A tale, from the days when Irish barristers were still addressed as ‘Counsellor’, of a barrister summonsed for failure to certify as honest a cook who cut bits off his meat for herself! Guest appearance by Leonard McNally, not a man to be discussing good character! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The Four Courts from Usher's Quay, via Starrat, History of Ancient and Modern Dublin, c.1830. More here: ruthcannon.com/2025/02/19/t...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Not all letters to judges were ingratiating - see below this sketch of Baron Dowse at the Galway Assizes reading aloud a letter received by him, containing, among other things, an illustration of a coffin with his name on it. Read the letter and his response here: ruthcannon.com/2025/02/18/l...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Anonymous letters sent to nineteenth-century Irish judges tended to be of two sorts: the ingratiating and the threatening. Read Judge Boyd's diatribe against the first sort, as reported in the Evening Herald of 18 Oct 1895, below.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

In 1801, Mary Doyle was tried at the Carlow Assizes for having procured children from the Foundling Hospital, Dublin, whom she then starved for begging purposes. The harrowing story of what happened to the children in her care may be read here: www.ruthcannon/2025/02/14/t...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Irish judges were initially suspicious of the Irish Law Reports. In 1883 Lord Chief Justice Morris cancelled his subscription in open court and in 1889 Baron Dowse suggested that the Reports might be best thrown in the Liffey. Read about it here: ruthcannon.com/2025/02/13/j...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Did you know that there was a pillory opposite St Michan's Church, in Church Street, Dublin, in the late 18th century? See below a hilarious story of residents' passive-aggressive support for a Mr Dunne, pilloried for sedition there in 1793!

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

An interesting article from the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, 1 March 1866 on the cross-examination style of 19th century Irish barrister and politician Isaac Butt.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

The River Liffey and the Law Courts, Dublin, 1879,' by J. Huberts, via Fine Art America. This stunning image depicts businessmen, street hawkers, local women and mounted and kilted military going about their day on Wood Quay. More detail here: ruthcannon.com/2025/02/10/t...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

As Valentine's Day approaches, acquaint yourself with this story of a romantic medico-legal elopement along the Grand Canal to Dublin. The prospective groom went on to become a leading expert in diseases of the heart! Full story here: ruthcannon.com/2025/02/06/a...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

This photograph of the birthplace of philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke at 12 Arran Quay, Dublin, published in the Sphere of 22 November 1902, shows the attractive shopfronts of buildings near the Four Courts a century or so ago. More here: ruthcannon.com/2025/02/06/e...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Did you know that as late as the 1830s it was considered a breach of etiquette by Irish lawyers to bring text books into court, as judges were presumed to know everything in the caselaw already? See below an account of olden days from the Freeman's Journal of 1 September 1890.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Coal shortages at the end of the First World War led to a shortening of the legal day in the Four Courts. Click on the clipping below to read the full story from the Freeman's Journal of 10 October 1918.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

As this report from the Westminster Gazette of 5 December 1895 shows, even for the very experienced practitioner, the temptation to address the court at length can be irresistible. Much has changed since 1895 but not, it seems, the unique tone of a judicial rebuke to counsel...

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

A watercolour by William Hurst Ashpitel via fonsiemealy.ie (zoom facility at link) depicting a design for a new bridge to replace the old Ormonde downriver from the Four Courts, destroyed in the great storm of 1802. Click on image for larger view: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/29/p... More here:

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Raise a glass to Miss Jane Dromgoole whose tea, wine and spirit shop at the corner of Arran Street and Pill Lane (image below) sold, on average, twenty-two barrels of Guinness’s porter weekly in 1887! More on her business here: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/28/m...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Before Judge Davitt in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 1928, the irredeemable Mary Knott, a ten-time convicted middle-aged fraudster of refined taste and extraordinary ingenuity. The below extract from the Fermanagh Herald of 28 January 1928 tells her story...

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

In 1872, the satirical publication 'Zozimus' carried an article on the Four Courts ending with a prediction that the building would be burnt down. By eerie coincidence, the Four Courts was in fact burnt down exactly fifty years later! Read the article in full here: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/27/z...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

In 1851, an inquest held in Mallow, Cork, found a six year old child, John Dennehy, to have died due to a blow from a whip wielded by Captain Bushe (image below), a grandson of a Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Read about his subsequent prosecution and acquittal here: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/24/c...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

After his elevation to the bench, the reputation for legal knowledge of Thomas Kelly, judge of the Common Pleas in Ireland, 1783-1801 (image below) took a hit, as his previous opinions began to be overruled. How would he react? Find out here: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/23/j...

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

The new Lounge Bar at the legendary Four Courts Hotel, Inns Quay, as it appeared in the Irish Independent of 19 October 1940. More on the accompanying write-up - and one famous visitor - here: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/22/t...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

Catholics were precluded from practising at the Irish Bar until the 18th century & even after that, they had to contend with prejudice. As the below shows, many felt the idea of an Irish Catholic barrister was an idea above the station of Irish Catholics. More: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/21/c...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

What happened to the bottle from the famous Bottle Riot in the Theatre Royal, Dublin (b-l) in 1822? According to the Freeman's Journal of 23 July 1912, it was last heard of c.1880 in the possession of an eccentric barrister in the Law Library, Four Courts. Click on the clipping to read more.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Image below from the famous Newry Will case of 1907, courtesy of the Irish Independent. The case involved a challenge by the widow of a solicitor to her husband's will, based on him having been under an insane delusion as to her infidelity. Read about it all here: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/17/n...

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

The site of today's Law Library in its previous incarnation as a Solicitors Hall, as published in 'A Souvenir Album of the Dublin Fighting, 1922.' Read more about the Solicitors Hall here: ruthcannon.com/2025/01/16/t...

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

A youthful romance between the young, successful and extremely handsome Denis Lambert Redmond (below) and an unknown woman which ended in the worst of circumstances on a gallows on Coal Quay, opposite the Four Courts after the Emmet Rebellion of 1803.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

Shoes for a Future Barrister - an advertisement from the Belfast Telegraph of 3/1/45, depicting a toddler making closing submissions to an audience of soft toys. It did not appear in Ireland, however clothing lines like 'Four Courts Clothing - for Boys' used the same theme in this jurisdiction.

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

"The grim attorney he waiteth for me And what if his papers unfinished be?" A poem from the London Review of 1866, 'A Barrister's Christmas-Tide Temptation' about a reluctant return to work after the Christmas vacation. Click on image to read full poem.

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

The 1885 Irish Probate case of Nolan v Nolan involved extraordinary evidence by the deceased's wife of a fake pregnancy followed by the purchase of a baby from a poor woman at the Coombe Hospital, Dublin. Click on the clipping rom the Liverpool Mercury 13 Feb 1885 for an account of her evidence.

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

Some sage advice on opinion-writing from the legendary Francis McDonough (or McDonagh) QC to the young Matthias O'Donnell Bodkin (later QC himself, and County Court judge). As true now as then!

submitted 46 days ago • 1 comment