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Death of Sir William Moore, Member of Parliament & Judge

Sir William Moore, 1st Baronet, PC (NI), DL, a Unionist member of the British House of Commons from Ireland and a Judge of Ireland, and subsequently of Northern Ireland, dies in Ballymoney, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on November 28, 1944. He is created a Baronet of Moore Lodge, Ballymoney, in 1932.

Moore is the eldest son of Queen Victoria‘s honorary physician in Ireland, Dr. William Moore of Rosnashane, Ballymoney, and Sidney Blanche Fuller. His ancestors came to Ulster during the Plantation of Ulster, settling at Ballymoney, at which time they were Quakers. The Moore Lodge estate is inherited from a relative. The family owns several other houses: Moore’s Grove and Moore’s Fort. He goes on to become a Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim and a Justice of the Peace.

Moore is schooled at Marlborough College, then attends Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where he is president of the University Philosophical Society. He marries Helen Gertrude Wilson, the daughter of a Deputy Lieutenant of County Armagh, in 1888. The marriage produces three children. His eldest son, William, inherits his title on his father’s death.

Moore is called to the Irish Bar in 1887, to the English bar in 1899, and becomes an Irish Queen’s Counsel the same year.

In 1903, Moore is one of the first landowners of Ireland to sell off their estates under the land acts. By the early 1920s he owns a Belfast pied-à-terre called “Glassnabreedon,” in the village of Whitehouse, four miles north of Belfast. This house is once owned by the son of Nicholas Grimshaw, Ireland’s first cotton pioneer.

Moore becomes a member of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland and is a founder member of the Ulster Council. He is a passionate Orangeman: his vehemence in defending Ulster’s right to oppose Irish Home Rule is said to alarm even those who share his views. Speaking in England on March 10, 1913, he makes his feelings clear on the possibility of Irish Home Rule: “I have no doubt, if Home Rule is carried, its baptism in Ireland will be a baptism in blood.” He shows little respect for English politicians, and has nothing but contempt for Southern Unionists. The eventual political settlement in 1921 meets with his approval.

Moore is a Member of Parliament, representing North Antrim from 1899 to 1906. From 1903 to 1904, he is an unpaid secretary to the Chief Secretary for Ireland. Having lost his Parliamentary seat in the 1906 United Kingdom general election, he is elected for North Armagh at the 1906 North Armagh by-election in November. He sits for this seat until he is appointed a judge of Ireland’s High Court.

Moore is a Justice of the High Court from 1917 to 1921. He is sworn of the Privy Council of Ireland in the 1921 Birthday Honours, entitling him to the style “The Right .” Following the partition of Ireland, he becomes a Lord Justice of Appeal in the Northern Irish Court of Appeal (1921–25). He is sworn of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in 1922 and becomes the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, succeeding Sir Denis Henry. He holds the position until he retires in 1937.

Moore dies at his home, Moore Lodge, in Ballymoney on November 28, 1944, less than a week after his 80th birthday. He is buried in the family burial ground, “Lamb’s Fold,” two days later.


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Birth of Hugh Holmes, MP & Judge of the Court of Appeal in Ireland

Hugh Holmes QC, an Irish Conservative Party, then after 1886 a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) in the Parliament of the United Kingdom and subsequently a Judge of the High Court and Court of Appeal in Ireland, is born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, on February 17, 1840.

Holmes is the son of William Holmes of Dungannon and Anne Maxwell. He attends the Royal School Dungannon and Trinity College, Dublin. He is called to the English bar in 1864 and to the Bar of Ireland in 1865.

Holmes becomes a Queen’s Counsel (QC) in 1877. He is appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland on December 14, 1878, and serves until the Conservative government is defeated in 1880. He becomes Attorney-General for Ireland in 1885–1886 and 1886–1887. He is made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland on July 2, 1885. He is a MP for Dublin University from 1885 to 1887.

Holmes resigns from the House of Commons when he is appointed a Judge in 1887. He is a Justice of the Common Pleas division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland until 1888 when he becomes a Justice of the Queen’s Bench division. He is promoted to be a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1897. Ill health causes his retirement in 1914.

Holmes appears to be a stern judge, who does not suffer fools gladly and often imposes exceptionally severe sentences in criminal cases. Although the story is often thought to be apocryphal, Maurice Healy maintains that Holmes did once sentence a man of great age to 15 years in prison, and when the prisoner pleaded that he could not do 15 years, replied “Do as much of it as you can.” His judgments do however display some good humour and humanity, and the sentences he imposes often turned out to be less severe in practice than those he announces in Court.

The quality of his judgments is very high and Holmes, together with Christopher Palles and Gerald FitzGibbon, is credited with earning for the Irish Court of Appeal its reputation as perhaps the strongest tribunal in Irish legal history. His retirement, followed by that of Palles (FitzGibbon had died in 1909), causes a loss of expertise in the Court of Appeal from which its reputation never recovers. Among his more celebrated remarks is that the Irish “have too much of a sense of humour to dance around a maypole.” His judgment in The SS Gairloch remains the authoritative statement in Irish law on the circumstances in which an appellate court can overturn findings of fact made by the trial judge.

In 1869 Holmes marries Olivia Moule, daughter of J.W. Moule of Sneads Green House, Elmley Lovett, Worcestershire. She dies in 1901. Their children include Hugh junior, Sir Valentine Holmes KC (1888-1956), who like his father is a very successful barrister and a noted expert on the law of libel, Violet (dies in 1966), who married Sir Denis Henry, 1st Baronet, the first Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Elizabeth, who marries the politician and academic Harold Lawson Murphy, author of a well-known History of Trinity College Dublin, and Alice (dies in 1942), who marries the politician and judge Edward Sullivan Murphy, Attorney General for Northern Ireland and Lord Justice of Appeal of Northern Ireland.

Holmes dies on April 19, 1916, five days before the beginning of the Easter Rising.


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Office of Governor of Northern Ireland Abolished

The mainly ceremonial office of Governor of Northern Ireland is abolished on July 18, 1973 under Section 32 of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a cabinet office created in 1972, takes over the functions of the Governor on December 20, 1973 under Letters Patent.

The office of the Governor of Northern Ireland is established on 9 December 9, 1922 under Letters Patent to “do and execute in due manner as respects Northern Ireland all things which by virtue of the [1920] Act and our said Letters Patent of 27 April 1921 or otherwise belonged to the office of Lord Lieutenant at the time of the passing of the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922.”

The 1922 “Instructions” sent alongside the letters patent establishing the office require the Governor of Northern Ireland to get the monarch’s permission to leave Northern Ireland, and empowers the Governor in such cases to issue letters patent under the Great Seal of Northern Ireland appointing a “Deputy or Deputies, Justice or Justices” during his absence. This emulates the practice of appointing Lords Justices of Ireland when the Lord Lieutenant is absent from Ireland. Each new Governor upon taking office selects a slate of eligible deputies from among the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, and at each of his subsequent absences a subset of these are sworn in for its duration. Many are Lord Chief Justice or Lord Justice of Appeal, including Denis Henry, William Moore, James Andrews, Anthony Babington, John MacDermott, Baron MacDermott, and Samuel Clarke Porter. Others are Senators and/or county lieutenants, including Robert Sharman-Crawford, Robert David Perceval-Maxwell, Henry Armstrong, Sir Thomas Dixon, 2nd Baronet, Maurice McCausland, and Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey.

The Governor has possession of the Great Seal of Northern Ireland and is the successor to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Northern Ireland, itself established on May 3, 1921. The official residence of the Governor of Northern Ireland is Hillsborough Castle in County Down. Following refurbishment of the Castle, James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn, takes up residence in 1925. It remained the official residence until the abolition of the office of governor in 1973. Henceforth it has been the official residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.