Richard Dowse PC (1824 – 14 March 1890) was an Irish politician, barrister and judge, who was reputed to be the wittiest Parliamentary

orator An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled. Etymology Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14th ...

of his time.

Background

He was born in Dungannon,

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

, eldest son of William Dowse, a merchant and Maria Donaldson, daughter of Captain Hugh Donaldson and Mary Vance. He was educated at the Royal School Dungannon and

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 ...

. As a student, he was briefly involved in the

Young Ireland Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...

movement. He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1849 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 1852. Though he was not a particularly good lawyer: ("he was better known for his wit than his law", a later judge commented sourly), his witty, occasionally scandalous speeches guaranteed him attention and regular press coverage. After practising for some years on the North-Western Circuit, he became

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

in 1863 and Third Serjeant in 1867.Ball p. 369

Later career

He was elected as

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 o ...

(MP) for Londonderry City at the 1868 general election. He was appointed 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 ...

in 1872, having served briefly as

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

and

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 ...

Dowse resided at 38

Mountjoy Square Mountjoy Square () is a Georgian garden square in Dublin, Ireland, on the Northside of the city just under a kilometre from the River Liffey. One of five Georgian squares in Dublin, it was planned and developed in the late 18th century by Lu ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

's north city centre. He died suddenly of an apparent

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

while holding the assizes in

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in Count ...

, County Kerry in March 1890. His health had been bad for some time, and he had apparently gone on his last circuit with some trepidation, remarking "I do not want to die in Kerry".

Family

On 29 December 1852, he married Catherine (Kate) Moore, daughter of George Moore of

Clones Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...

, and they had one son and three daughters, including Charlotte (1855-1934), who married Sir William Sullivan, 3rd Baronet (1860-1937), third son of another eminent judge,

Sir Edward Sullivan, 1st Baronet Sir Edward Sullivan, 1st Baronet, PC (Ire) (10 July 1822 – 13 April 1885) was an Irish lawyer, and a Liberal Member of Parliament for Mallow, 1865–1870 in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was als ...

. Kate died in 1874.

Reputation

He was considered one of the finest and wittiest Parliamentary speakers of the age, and had the ability to crush an opposing speaker. When

John Thomas Ball John Thomas Ball QC (24 July 1815 – 17 March 1898) was an Irish barrister, judge and politician in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Life He was born in Dundrum, Dublin, elde ...

, a future Lord Chancellor of Ireland, asked for the date of a certain event, Dowse replied gravely that he did not have the precise date, but he thought it was about the time when Ball changed his political allegiance in the hope of getting into the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

. By comparison with his political speeches, his judgements are generally rather dull, and have little value as precedents. He never had much reputation as a lawyer, although he had the virtues of common sense, clarity and simplicity. Delaney refers to a complex

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

application which Dowse disposed of by saying simply "I'm afraid the prisoner must remain in gaol,Delaney p.91 and he occasionally showed a touch of his celebrated wit in his judgements.

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 ...

tells the story of a later judge who refused to follow a judgement of Dowse's, saying unkindly that "the learned Baron was always better known for his wit than his law". Counsel then gravely embarrassed the judge by pointing out that the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

had given an identical judgment.

Legacy

His obituary notice in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' of 15 March 1890, read On his retirement from the House of Commons, '' Punch magazine'' published a warm tribute to a man whose humour had been "like an oasis in the desert". Elrington Ball described him as a man who combined great wit with incisive intelligence and a knowledge of the world.Ball p.305

References

External links

*
Irish Criminology

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Dowse, Richard 1824 births 1890 deaths Irish barristers Solicitors-General for Ireland Attorneys-General for Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Londonderry constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1868–1874 Irish Liberal Party MPs Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Judges of the High Court of Justice in Ireland Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)