The Howlin Backlist

Niamh Howlin, University College Dublin, has posted several papers on Irish legal history from his backlist:

“Something More Than Tourists”: The American Bar Association in Ireland

This article explores the relationship between the American Bar Association and the Irish legal professions in the twentieth century. It focuses in particular on two instances when the ABA visited Ireland; the first in 1924 and the second in 1957. Both were significant for different reasons. In 1924 the new Irish Free State had emerged from a period of violence to the formation of a new system of courts, new judicial appointments and other changes. The visit was an opportunity to demonstrate internationally that the rule of law had been reestablished. In 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court had delivered a number of significant civil rights judgments and the visit of Chief Justice Earl Warren to Ireland seems to have fed into the growing interest in American constitutional interpretation. The 1957 visit was also an example of the kind of soft diplomacy which further strengthened Irish-American relations. 

 A Wrongful Conviction: The Murder of John Donovan in Glenlara

This is the story of a murder which took place in Glenlara, in the parish of Clonfert, in 1894, and the subsequent trial, conviction and hanging of a man from Castleisland, Co. Kerry. Initially a local story, it later attracted national attention, was discussed in the House of Commons, and generated endless columns of newspaper reporting. Stories about the murder, the trial and the hanging were told and retold in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, through books, articles, documentaries, culminating in the granting of a pardon by President Michael D. Higgins 127 years later. In this article, I explore some of the legal aspects of the investigation and the trial, to explain why it was considered necessary to grant a pardon after so many years. 

Law Reform Before the Law Reform Commission, which discusses "attempts in the 20th century to introduce systemic law reform in Ireland "

“On the Fly and on the Sly”: A District Court in Action, a study of a local court operating at the founding of the Free State and the passing of the Courts of Justice Act 1924.

–Dan Ernst