William Burke Kirwan (c.1814–1880?) was a minor Irish painter best known for the murder of his wife, Sarah Maria Louisa Kirwan. The resulting trial was one of the most notorious in Victorian Ireland.

Early life

William Bourke Kirwan was born in Dublin in 1814 into an artistic family. He studied art under the portrait painter Richard Downes Bowyer, and exhibited various pieces of art at the Royal Hibernian Academy in the 1830s and 1840s. He later worked as an engraver, picture cleaner, and anatomical draughtsman. He married Sarah Maria Louisa Crowe (1824-1852), and they resided together on Merrion Street in Dublin. They had no children.

Murder and aftermath

The couple went on an outing to the small island of

Ireland's Eye Ireland's Eye () is a small long-uninhabited island off the coast of County Dublin, Ireland. Situated directly north of Howth village and harbour, the island is easily reached by regular seasonal tourist boats, which both circumnavigate it an ...

, off the coast of Dublin, on September 6, 1852. Kirwan claimed not to be able to find his wife after she had swum while he sketched. Her body was later found on a rock on the island, covered in blood. While at first it was believed that she had died in an accidental drowning, a later exhumation and autopsy showed signs of manual asphyxiation. Kirwan's subsequent arrest and trial caused a media sensation across the United Kingdom. The trial, which took place in Dublin's

Green Street Courthouse Green Street Courthouse () is a courthouse between Green Street and Halston Street in the Smithfield area of Dublin, Ireland. It was the site of many widely discussed criminal trials from 1797 until 2010, when the Criminal Courts of Justice ...

in December 1852, attracted large crowds. Kirwan’s defence was headed by the noted barrister and MP

Isaac Butt Isaac Butt (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879) was an Irish barrister, editor, politician, Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, economist and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parti ...

. Kirwan had long maintained a separate home in

Sandymount Sandymount () is an affluent coastal suburb in the Dublin 4 district on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. Etymology An early name for the area was Scal'd Hill or Scald Hill.

with his mistress, Maria Teresa Kenny and their eight children, which was presented as a motive for him to murder his wife. Kirwan was found guilty and sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment and

transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

after appeals by reputable citizens, including ten doctors who stated that his wife's death was consistent with drowning. He was sent to the convict establishment labouring in the construction of the Royal Naval Dockyard on the island of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the

Imperial fortress Imperial fortress was the designation given in the British Empire to four colonies that were located in strategic positions from each of which Royal Navy squadrons could control the surrounding regions and, between them, much of the planet. His ...

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

, where many other Irish convicts, including nationalist journalist and politician

John Mitchel John Mitchel ( ga, Seán Mistéal; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, author, and political journalist. In the Great Famine (Ireland), Famine years of the 1840s he was a leading writer for The Nation (Irish n ...

, had been sent before him (convicts were accommodated on

prison hulks A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nation ...

at Ireland Island until the construction of barracks for them on the adjacent

Boaz Island Boaz (; Hebrew: בֹּעַז ''Bōʿaz''; ) is a biblical figure appearing in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible and in the genealogies of Jesus in the New Testament and also the name of a pillar in the portico of the historic Temple in Jeru ...

in the 1840s). Ferdinand Whittingham, an army officer serving in the

Bermuda Garrison The Bermuda Garrison was the military establishment maintained on the British Overseas Territory and Imperial fortress of Bermuda by the regular British Army and its local militia and voluntary reserves from 1701 to 1957. The garrison evolved fr ...

, recorded Kirwan's presence in Bermuda in Chapter XII of his 1857 book ''BERMUDA; A COLONY, A FORTRESS AND A PRISON; OR, Eighteen Months in the Somers Islands'': Kirwan was freed in 1879, and may have emigrated to the United States. The site of Sarah Maria Louisa Kirwan's murder became a popular site for tourism in the mid-nineteenth century. Ireland Island Woodcut

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirwan, William Burke 1814 births 1880 deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain 19th-century Irish painters Irish male painters Irish people convicted of murder Place of death missing 19th-century Irish male artists