Life
1789-1859; b. Sligo; ed. TCD; Bar 1812; notorious as trying to clear Courvoisier, accused of the murder of Lord William Russell, by throwing suspicion on another man of whose innocence he was certain; The Lament of the Emerald Isle, a poem (1812); Recollections of Curran and His Contemporaries (1818); Specimens of Irish Eloquence (1819); Historical Sketch of Wellington (1852). Moore speaks of his Curran as written in wretched taste; d Golden Square, London. ODNB DIW JMC.
Commentary
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (1904), for extracts from An Historical Character of Napoleon; ‘The Dinas Island Speech’, and ‘Speech to the Catholics of Sligo, 1813’.
References
Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput 1985), gives bio-data: b. Sligo, ed. TCD, Bar 1812; English bar, 1821, commissioner of Bankruptcy Court, Liverpool, 1842; national testimonial, 1813, for speeches in favour of Catholic Emancipation [MANC], admired by O’Connell; famed for The Queen’s Case Stated (1820), many edns., a defence of Queen Caroline. Speeches 1816-17; Curran and His Contemporaries (1818); writings on Napoleon and Napoleon III, and Vacation Thoughts on Capital Punishment (1857) - against - which was reprinted by Quakers.
Hyland Books (Cat., q.d.) lists The Lament of the Emerald Isle (7th edn. 1818), 21pp. [Hyland 224]; The Queen’s Case Stated (1820 3rd edn.), 32pp. [
Belfast Central Public Library holds Emerald Isle (1818); Curran and his Contemporaries (1851); Specimens of Irish Eloquence (1819); Speeches of Mr. Phillips in the Case of Guthrie v. Sterne (1816).
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