Irish Lawyers and Courts in a Revolutionary Decade 1916-1926: Reflections on W.N. Osborough, “Law in Ireland 1916-26”

In 1971 Nial Osborough delivered a public lecture that would later be converted into an extended journal article. The resulting work would constitute one of his earliest and most ambitious forays into the field of Irish legal history. The lecture was delivered in Belfast during the early years of the “troubles” in Northern Ireland. There could be no more poignant time to reflect on an earlier period of troubles which, at this time, still lay within living memory. The resulting publication, “Law in Ireland 1916-26”, focused on the challenges faced by Irish courts and lawyers between the Easter rising and the final partitioning of the legal professions in 1926. Some attention was also provided to policing in this turbulent decade together with to the activities of the Dublin and Belfast legislatures that emerged from these revolutionary years.