John George Gibson PC, QC (13 February 1846 – 28 June 1923), was an Irish lawyer, judge and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician.

Background and education

Gibson was the youngest son of William Gibson of

Merrion Square Merrion Square () is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre. History The square was laid out in 1752 by the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. The demand for ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, and Rockforest,

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

, and his first wife Louisa Grant, daughter of Joseph Grant, barrister, of Dublin.

Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne (4 September 1837 – 22 May 1913), was an Anglo-Irish lawyer and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Background and education Born at 22 Merrion Square, Dublin, Gibson was the son of William Gibson J.P. (1808–1872 ...

, was his elder brother. He was educated at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

at the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environment ...

, Dublin in 1870.

Legal career

Gibson was made an Irish

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1880, and Third Irish Serjeant in 1885. In 1885 he was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Liverpool Walton Liverpool, Walton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Dan Carden of the Labour Party. Carden won the highest percentage share of the vote in June 2017 of 650 constituencies, 85.7%. It is t ...

. He was

Solicitor General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On ra ...

from November 1885 to January 1886 and

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...

from 1887 to 1888. He resigned his seat in 1888 to become an Irish High Court Judge.

Maurice Healy Maurice Healy (3 January 1859 – 9 November 1923) was an Irish nationalist politician, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP). As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was returned to in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Gre ...

in his memoir ''The Old Munster Circuit'' praises Gibson's charm, eloquence, dignity and sense of fairness, although he rated him below his brother Lord Ashbourne as a lawyer. Arguably Healy underestimated Gibson as a judge: his judgment in ''Fox v. Higgins'' remains the definitive analysis of the curious "triangular" employment situation in Ireland involving an individual teacher, the school board and the Minister for Education, and it is still regularly quoted.''O'Keeffe v Hickey''

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * The Streetwear Brand @008us , inspired by Ian Fleming & Virgil Abloh *"030", the fictional 030 Agent of MI6 * '' 038: Operation Exterminate'', a 1965 Italian action film * '' Explosivo 030'' a 1940 Argentine c ...

IESC 72; ''Minister for Education and Skills v. Boyle'' 017 IECA 39

Family

In 1871, Gibson married his cousin, Ann Sophia Matilda Hare, daughter of Reverend John Hare of Deer Park,

and Mary Pennefather, and had eight children, of whom only four - John, William, Anne, and Charlotte - survived infancy. Anne died in 1911, aged only 34. Maurice Healy in ''The Old Munster Circuit'' records the touching story of how her father, despite his desperate concern about Anne's serious illness, tried to hold the Cork

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

in the normal way: but the members of the

Irish Bar The Bar of Ireland ( ga, Barra na hÉireann) is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Ba ...

, out of compassion, found excuses to adjourn all the cases in the legal calendar. Gibson, a man of strong emotions, was so moved by this kindness that he burst into tears. He lived at 38 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin. His elder brother

Edward Gibson Edward George Gibson (born November 8, 1936) is a former NASA astronaut, pilot, engineer, and physicist. Before becoming an astronaut, Gibson graduated from the University of Rochester and the California Institute of Technology. He became a re ...

became Baron Ashbourne and

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

. Gibson died at the age of 77. His widow died in 1939.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, John George 1846 births 1923 deaths Politicians from County Dublin Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 Solicitors-General for Ireland Attorneys-General for Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Judges of the High Court of Justice in Ireland Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) Irish Queen's Counsel Alumni of King's Inns