Our Legal Heritage

On 22 April 1983, Senator David Norris lost an appeal to the Supreme Court. He sought a declaration that that sections 61 and 62 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, were inconsistent with the Constitution. Under Article 50 of the Consti

Alice Milligan was born in a village just outside Omagh in September 1866, one of thirteen children. Her parents were Methodists of modest means, and whose success in the Irish linen trade brought the family to Belfast in 1879. In Belfast, Alice was educated at Methodist College along with her survi

On 7 June 1917, William Hoey Kearney Redmond was killed in the attack on the Messines Ridge during the First World War, serving as a major in the Royal Irish Regiment of the British Army. A famous Irish Nationalist, Willie came from a family of parliamentarians – his father, William Archer Red

After several decades as a military fort, and a much earlier history of being a monastic settlement, Spike Island was converted into a prison in 1847.

Twenty years ago today, on Monday 15 March 1999, human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries. A bomb had been attached to the underneath of her car, and detonated when she pressed the brakes as she reached the bottom of the road from her home as she drove to her offic

Having witnessed evictions in 1885 which she described as the “wholesale destruction of the little houses of the people”, Maud Gonne said this “changed the whole course” of her life, transforming her from a “carefree society girl into a woman of set purpose”, dete

On 23 December 1881, 21-year-old Hannah Reynolds was sentenced at the Petty Sessions court to 28 days in Cork gaol for her work with the Ladies Land League. The men in the National Irish Land League were charged under the Coercion Acts, however the women of the Ladies Land League were not to be impr

An Garda Síochána recruits outside the General Post Office 1954 Source: Alison Cassidy Family Collection (GNU Free Documentation License)

Human rights lawyer Pat Finucane was murdered in his home in North Belfast on 12 February 1989. Pat was shot 14 times and his wife, Geraldine, was injured in the shooting, which was witnessed by their children as they hid underneath a table. The only person to be prosecuted in relation to the murder

On 1 February, the Feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare is celebrated as the day of new beginnings, the beginning of spring, and stories are told of the many miracles attributed to the second patron saint of Ireland.

After the Easter Rising, many of the volunteers focused on political activity rather than another rebellion. At Sinn Féin’s Ard Fheis on 25 and 26 October 1917, Arthur Griffith pledged: “we are remaking this organisation of Sinn Féin for the real purpose and object to

The commencement of the Domestic Violence Act 2018 brings significant changes to Ireland’s law on domestic violence, including the introduction of offences under the heading of coercive control, the court’s express consideration of the victim’s psychological and emotional welfare,

In November 1908, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Margaret Cousins, along with their husbands Francis and James, founded the Irish Women’s Franchise League (IWFL). The primary aim of the IWFL was for women to be afforded the right to vote on the same terms as men, and a particular aim was to guar

The general election of December 1918 was the first time that women were able to exercise their right to vote in Britain and Ireland. Although the Representation of the People Act 1918 did not provide for equal voting rights – it was only female property owners over the age of 30 who were all

Navigating the streets of Dublin in a wooden bowl fortified with iron, "Billy in the bowl", as he was so nicknamed, was born without legs and said to have been blessed with a handsome face. Using this to his advantage, Billy was "one of those curious beggars who frequented fairs and public places, w