St George Daly (1758 – December 1829) was an Irish judge, who had a reputation for ignorance of the law. He owed his career advancement entirely to his support for the

Act of Union 1801 The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a single 'Act of Union 1801') were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ire ...

, which did nothing to enhance his standing in the legal profession.

Background

He was the fifth son of James Daly MP, of Carrownakelly and Dunsandle, by his second wife Catherine Gore, daughter of

Sir Ralph Gore, 4th Baronet Sir Ralph Gore, 4th Baronet (c. 1675 – 23 February 1733) was a Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. He is now chiefly remembered for building Belle Isle Castle. The Gore Baronetcy, of Magherabegg in the County of Donegal, was created in the ...

and Elizabeth Ashe, daughter of St George Ashe,

Bishop of Derry The Bishop of Derry is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title which takes its name after the monastic settlement originally founded at Daire Calgach and later known as Daire Colm Cille, Anglicised as Derry. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a ...

and Jane St. George. 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 ...

, entered

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, and was called to 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 ...

in 1783. Denis Daly, a much respected but short-lived politician, was his eldest brother. The Dalys were a long-established landowning family in County Galway. Though traditionally

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and of

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

origin, they managed to hold onto their lands by embracing the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

faith and renouncing their loyalty to the

Stuart dynasty The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fi ...

Career

In January 1798 he was elected to the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

as one of the two Members of Parliament for the

pocket borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

. When the Irish House of Commons was abolished by the

Act of Union 1800 The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a single 'Act of Union 1801') were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Irela ...

, (which Daly strongly supported) Galway's representation was reduced to one. The other MP,

George Ponsonby George Ponsonby (5 March 17558 July 1817), was a British lawyer and Whig politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1806 to 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents. Background and education Ponsonby was the second surviving so ...

, resigned, leaving Daly as the sole MP. He became Prime Serjeant-at-law in 1799, much against the wishes of the legal profession, who had greatly admired his predecessor James Fitzgerald (1742-1835); Fitzgerald had been dismissed for opposing the Union. He was appointed to the Irish Privy Council on 16 December 1800. He was the first MP for Galway Borough in the new

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

but vacated his seat on 21 February 1801R.G. Thorne, ''The House of Commons 1790-1820'', Secker & Warburg 1986, vol. I, p. 565 on appointment as a Baron of the

Court of Exchequer (Ireland) The Court of Exchequer (Ireland) or the Irish Exchequer of Pleas, was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was the mirror image of the equivalent court in England. The Court of Exchequer was one of the four royal courts of justic ...

; John Brabazon Ponsonby was elected to succeed him on 10 March. On 3 November 1803 he transferred from the Court of Exchequer to the

Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The King's Be ...

, serving until his resignation in 1822. He was one of the judges at the trials following the Robert Emmet Rebellion in 1803. He presided in 1817 at the trial of the eccentric writer

Roger O'Connor Roger O'Connor (1762-1834) was an Irish nationalist and writer, known for the controversies surrounding his life and writings, notably his fanciful history of the Irish people, the '' Chronicles of Eri''. He was the brother of the United Irishma ...

for

highway robbery A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footp ...

and is said to have pressed hard for an

acquittal In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...

. O'Connor was duly found not guilty, though public suspicion about his guilt never died. Ball pp. 332-3

Reputation

The reputation of the Irish Bench in the years after the Act of Union was very low: several High Court judges, including Daly, were universally believed to owe their elevation solely to their support for the Union, and his appointment was badly received by the legal profession.Ball p.288 It was said of Daly that, while he had been a good student, and was reasonably well-read, he had never held even a dozen briefs in his whole career, and that barristers mocked his ignorance of the law in open court. He did at least come from a family with a tradition of judicial service: his great-grandfather, the first Denis Daly, had been a judge of the

Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) The Court of Common Pleas was one of the principal courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror image of the equivalent court in England. Common Pleas was one of the four courts of justice which gave the Four Courts in Dublin, which is still ...

during the reign of James II. He was also a man of blameless life, though retiring in disposition and generally unpopular. If no lawyer, he did have a reputation for common sense.Ball p.188

Family

He lived at

Eyrecourt Eyrecourt, historically known as Donanaghta (), is a village in County Galway, Ireland. Eyrecourt is on the R356 regional road 12 km west of the Banagher bridge over the River Shannon. History The Eyres after whom the village is named ...

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

. In 1803 he married his cousin Louisa, daughter of Richard Gore of Sandymount,

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...

and Martha Fiott, but had no children. She died in 1816

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, St George 1758 births 1829 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish barristers Irish MPs 1798–1800 Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Galway constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1801–1802 Barons of the Irish Exchequer Justices of the Irish King's Bench Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Galway constituencies Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) Lawyers from County Galway