S[amuel] Shannon Millin

Life
A Belfast lawyer [?solicitor]; he issued a Digest of the Decision of the Superior Courts relating to Petty Sessions in Ireland (1898); lectured on G. F. S. Armstrong to the Irish Literary Society in Dublin, and edited his poems in 1917; engaged with Francis Bigger and others in the slavery controversy regarding Waddell Cunningham, a Belfast merchant (A Slave Projector?, 1926); lectured on the Irish harp to the Ulster Society (1898); issued Sidelights on Belfast History (Belfast 1932), and a sequel in 1938; also contributed to the literature of the non-subscribing church in Belfast and Dublin; he appears to have been a firm unionist in contact with the Irish revival movement in Dublin, where he may have spent some time.

 

Works
  • Was Waddell Cunningham, Belfast Merchant, “A Slave-Ship Projector”? An Historic Enquiry [With a portrait] (Belfast: Educational Co. 1926; 2nd edn. in 1926], 32pp.
  • Sidelights on Belfast History, 2 pts. (Belfast & London: W. & G. Baird, 1932), 4o. [BL; var. 8o NL Scotland] , ill. [with plates, including portraits and a supplement].
  • Additional Sidelights on Belfast History, &c. [With plates, including portraits, facsimiles and maps.] (Belfast & London: W. & G. Baird, 1938), 166pp.
  • Catalogue of Exhibits Relating to Old Belfast: Opened on Empire Day, 24th May, 1939 ... compiled by Mr. S. Shannon Millin [City of Belfast Museum and Art Gallery, No. 129] (1939) 63pp., ill, [12pp. of pls. incl. front.; 21 cm.]
  • A Digest of the Reported Decisions of the Superior Courts: Relating to Petty Sessions in Ireland (Dublin: E. Ponsonby 1898), xviii, 212, 61pp. [also Microfilm edn. by New York Trans-Media, 1975].
  • Historical Retrospect: Belfast Exchange 1769-1776; Exchange and Assembly Room, 1776-1820; Exchange Buildings, 1820-1846; Belfast Bank 1846- (Belfast & London: W. & G. Baird 1937), 16pp., 8o.
  • History of the Second Congregation of Protestant Dissenters in Belfast (Belfast: W. & G. Baird 1900), 121pp. ill. [J. Vinycomb].
  • appendix to Installation Service [containing]: The Principles of non-subscribing Presbyterianism [Rev. H. J. Rossington]: Christian Discipleship [Rev. G. Vance Crook]. Declaraton [Rev. E. Savelll Hicks]; Prayer and Charge to the Minister and People [Rev. G. Hamilton Vance], with an appendix containing some account of the Stephen’s Green Congregation Delivered at the installation of the Rev. Hicks (M.A. Oxon.) as minister to the congregation of Stephen’s Green, Dublin on Thursday, 31st March, 1910] (Dublin: s.n. 1910), 38pp. [21cm.; Appendix by S. Shannon Millin].
  • Communion Service: The Property of the First and Second Congregations [of Protestant dissenters], Belfast. (Harpenden 1930), 1 sh.
  • The Irish Harp: A Lecture [delivered at the Rosemary St. Hall, Belfast, 28th March 1898] (London: Ulster Assoc. 1898), 71pp., ill. [7 pls.; coats of arms, ports.; 18cm.]
  • Our Society: Its Aims and Achievements (1847-1919): A paper read on ... 9th January 1919 ... With a report of the speeches by Rt. Hon. the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Miss Mulvaney, LL.D., Rt. Hon. the Earl of Mayo, K.P. [The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland] (Dublin 1919), 21cm.
  • comp., Historical Memoirs [Index to Transactions and Journal of the The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, 1847-1919], compiled by S. Shannon Millin, 2 pts. in 1 vol. (Dublin: E. Ponsonby 1920), 201pp., 8o. [with ports.].
  • Poems: National And International. Selected from the Writings of G. F. Savage-Armstrong ... introduced by S. Shannon Millin. (Dublin: E. Ponsonby 1917), 88pp., ill. [pls., incl. a port.]; Do. [2nd edn.] (Dublin 1919.)
Source: COPAC; accessed 06.09.2011.

 

Criticism
Nini Rodgers, ‘Making history in Belfast: the tale of Francis Joseph Bigger, Samuel Shannon Millin and Waddell Cunningham’, in From the United Irishmen to twentieth–century Unionism [Festschrift for A.T.Q. Stewart], ed. Sabine Wichert (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2004). q.pp. [see note, infra.]

Note: The chapter contributed by Nini Rodgers to From the United Irishmen to twentieth-century Unionism [as above] is listed in COPAC as Rodgers [QUB], ‘The Patriots, the Nationalists, the Unionists and Belfast's Projected Slave Trade Company’ - a variant title which might well cover the same subject and hence incorporate remarks on Millin, with particular emphasis on the case of shipping merchant Waddell Cunningham addressed in his pamphlet of 1926.

 

References
Library of Herbert Bell (Belfast) holds S. Shannon Millin, under The Irish Harp (1898); Sidelights on Belfast History (Belfast 1932); History of the 2nd Congregation of Protestant Dissenters in Belfast 1708-1896 (Belfast 1900); Historical Memoirs with Portraits (Dublin 1920); Additional Sidelights on Belfast History (Belfast 1938).

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