Life
1764-1841 [Major Sirr]; Town Major [police chief] of Dublin; b. Dublin Castle, son of Town-Major; Brit. Army 1778-1791; wine merchant; acting town-major or head of police in 1796, confirmed in 1798, serving in that capacity up to 1808, with residence in the Castle; arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 19 May 1798; mulcted damages for false imprisonment, 1802; arrested of Thomas Russell, Robert Emmet and others, 1803; lost position during reorganisation of Dublin police service, 1808, but permitted to retain title; fnd. Irish Society for Promoting Scriptural Education in the Irish Language; bur. St. Werburgh’s near Lord Edward; his collection of antiques and curiosities bought by RIA. ODNB DIB DIH
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Criticism
R. R. Madden, United Irishmen, 2 vols. (1842); Appendix IV, Major Sirr; with Majors Swan and Sandys; Cheryl Herr, For the Land They Loved, Irish Political Melodramas (1991), prefatory material and index; account of the arrest of Lord Edward taken from Fitzpatrick, Secret Service Under Pitt (1892), in Herr, p.32-33; Irish Book Lover 2.
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References
Dictionary of National Biography also lists Henry Charles (1807-1872), 2nd son of above, author of Ceylon and the Chinese (1849), and Ceylon and the Cingalese (1859).
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Notes
Sirr was a noted collector of interesting papers connected with his office; the Sirr Collection of papers at TCD were presented by his elder son, Rev. Joseph D’Arcy Sirr, at some time between Jan 1841 (when he died) and Feb. 1843. [Journals and memoirs of Thomas Russell, 1791-5, ed. CJ Woods, IAP 1991.]
Narrative of Sirr’s possession and sale of Cormac’s Cross and other items of Irish archaeological interest, in exchange for second-rate (copied) paintings; in see P J McCall, Dublin Historical Journal (March 1940), ‘In the Shadow of Christ Church’, [p.112].
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