Bill Holohan SC Profile picture
Husband/Father; Irish Solicitor, Senior Counsel & Notary Public; Mediator; Dispute Resolver; Insolvency Practitioner; Author; Speaker; Trademark Agent.
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Nov 8, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
8 November- a busy day in Irish history.
1928: The first shipment of plant & equipment from Detroit for the new Fordson factory arrives in Cork on board the SS Lake Gorin.
1960: In Niemba Congo 9 Irish soldiers serving with the UN die in an ambush.
1969: The Breathalyser is introduced in Ireland.
1984: Charles Mitchell, RTE’s newscaster and the man who announced news of the assassination of President John F Kennedy to an Irish audience, retired, giving his last broadcast. Vice-president of the Irish Society for the Prevention of
Aug 7, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read
Mr Justice Max Barrett recently had some harsh words to say about unregulated “financial advisers” giving advice to people facing debt and repossession proceedings when he said the following in the case of Start v Cussen [2021] IEHC 531:
“There are unregulated charlatans ‘out there’ who are not regulated professionals and who do not act for a State body such as MABS but who purport to ‘assist’ vulnerable people in debt, selling them a crock of nonsense that there is some ‘trick of the legal loop’ through which one can readily and simply avoid the
Aug 6, 2021 6 tweets 4 min read
404 years ago today on 6 August 1617, Sir Walter Raleigh sailed from the port of Cork in Ireland.
Raleigh was born in Devon, England, in 1554. Educated at Oxford, he practised law in the Middle Temple. He went to sea, becoming one of many privateers who served Queen Elizabeth by preying on the Spanish and Portuguese ships returning with booty from the Americas.
Raleigh ingratiated himself with Queen Elizabeth, who presented him with vast estates in Ireland in Counties Cork and Waterford. These he largely neglected, preferring the life of comfort and
Jun 30, 2021 4 tweets 3 min read
30 years ago this evening, on 30 June 1991, the First Edition of Bankruptcy Law & Practice written by then Mark Sanfey BL (now Mr Justice Mark Sanfey of the High Court) and myself was launched at a reception held in Stephen's Green in Dublin.
Mr Justice Frank Murphy was the bankruptcy judge back then and he "performed the honours" in terms of the launch which was also attended by the late Chief Justice Tom Finlay and retired Supreme Court Judge Brian Walsh.
Also present all those years ago were two good friends Noel Rubotham and Noel A. Doherty,
Jun 21, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read
In 1850, the decision by the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, to restrict the mail to only one delivery on Sundays infuriated many citizens of Cork in Ireland.
`This has been a great triumph for all blockheads and fanatics,' a correspondent to the Cork Examiner wrote. 'It is a surrender of the post-office,' the Examiner editorial commented, 'which a few stupid blockheads have been able to do to the public.'
The decision was brought about, the Cork Examiner insisted, as a result `of the clamour of a small faction in favour of a Judaical observance of
May 5, 2021 4 tweets 3 min read
529 years ago today, 5 May 1492, Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne of England, paid the first of his 5 visits to Cork City in Ireland. He arrived as an apprentice to a Breton silk merchant Pierre Jean Meno. His job was to walk around the city in his Master's silk clothing. Thought of as noble, he claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the disappeared "Princes in the Tower" & the one true King.
In later visits, having got the backing of French King Charles VIII & Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, he received the support of the citizens of Cork.
Mar 26, 2021 4 tweets 5 min read
2 years ago this morning on 26 March 2019 I took this photograph of early morning sunshine reflected on the Luas line in Dublin Ireland. At the time it reminded me that on this day 26 March in 1942, 79 years ago, sunshine would have reflected on the railway lines when the first “Eichmann transport" to Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camps began as part of the Nazi Final Solution. This happens when we think of people as others: “them”. This leads to “them” being dehumanized. This leads to things like ethnic cleansing in Bosnia or to massacres in holy
May 18, 2020 12 tweets 5 min read
105 years ago today on 18 May 1905, the foundation stone of the Honan Chapel at University College Cork was laid down. The Irish University Act, 1908, had decreed that no part of the finance made available for the new University College, Cork, (formerly Queen's College), should be used 'for the provision or maintenance of any church, chapel or any other place of religious worship or observance'. Accordingly, the funds required for building a University Chapel had to be provided from private sources. Fortunately, the administrator of the 1913 bequest of
May 15, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
On 15 May 1862 @ 6 AM a warden in the Cork County Goal saw fire raging in the nearby Queens College & raised the alarm. The West Wing, a two-storey building above 120' feet long & 30' wide was in flames. The Corporation firefighting apparatus arrived but there was no hydrant in the vicinity. A hose was connected to a water main & efforts made to concentrate on preventing the fire from spreading.
At about 08:00 hours the Royal Exchange Insurance Company brigade arrived in support. The military also arrived and formed a bucket brigade from the river. The
May 14, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
155 years ago today 14 May 1865 marked the death of a famous lawyer Sir Thomas Staples, 9th Baronet of Lissane Co. Tyrone (1775–1865), who has risen to be the Queen’s Advocate in 1845 and a bencher of the Queen’s Inns. He was the last surviving member and Speaker of the Irish Irish House of Commons which was abolished following the Act of Union in 1800.
In 1829 he had purchased the largest town house on Merrion Square in Dublin, No. 45, now the Irish Architectural Archive. The house had been built in an ambitious & optimistic age, but in the Dublin
May 12, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
100 years ago today 12 May 1920 the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks at Commons Road Cork was attacked & burned & Sgt. Denis Garvey & Constable Daniel Harrington were shot dead while Constable Doyle was wounded on the Lower Road Cork near the railway station.
Following numerous Image attacks on RIC barracks nationwide, over 700 of the approximately 1,300 open in January 1919 were closed by January 1921. Co. Cork with 123 in January 1919, followed the trend of barrack closures & by January 2021, only 43 remained. 9 of the 16 barracks in Cork city and environs Image
May 12, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
197 years ago today on 12 May 1823 the Catholic Association, a political organisation, was set up by Daniel O'Connell to campaign for Catholic emancipation within Great Britain. It was one of the first mass-membership political protest movements in Europe. O’Connell aka The Great Liberator, a lawyer, realised that as a Catholic, while he was forbidden to take a seat in Parliament, there was no law preventing him running for election. He was elected in 1828. Prime Minister Duke of Wellington & top aide Robert Peel, the Home Secretary, until then called
May 9, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read
349 years ago today 9 May 1671, an Irishman, self styled Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the British crown jewels from the Tower of London.
Blood was born in Ireland to an English landowner but grew up to become a bit of an opportunist and a scoundrel. During the War of the Three Kingdoms, (between England, Ireland and Scotland), Blood switched allegiances from King Charles to Oliver Cromwell whenever it suited him.
Blood posed as a member of the nobility in order to gain access to the Edwards family who were the custodians of the Crown Jewels
May 6, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
6 May 1882, 138 years ago today, and only four days after the "Killmainham treaty" was concluded between Liberal British Prime Minister William Gladstone and Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell allowing for the "rent arrears" question for 100,000 tenants to be resolved before the land courts, the Phoenix Park murders took place.
These murders were the assassination of the Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish (who had only arrived in Ireland that day), & Thomas Henry Burke the Permanent Undersecretary. The murders were
May 5, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
528 years ago today, 5 May 1492, Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne of England, paid the first of his 5 visits to Cork. He arrived as an apprentice to a Breton silk merchant Pierre Jean Meno & in his job was to parade around in his Master's finery of silk clothing. Thought to be be noble, he soon claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the disappeared "Princes in the Tower", and the one true King.
In his later visits, having secured the backing of French King Charles VIII & Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, he received the support of the citizens
May 4, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
141 years ago this week, the "Battle of the Bands" took place in Cork City. Thursday 3 May 1879 saw the Fair Lane Fife & Drum and the Blackpool Bands parade in the City. As they made their way home they met in Clarence Street (now Gerald Griffin Street) on the northside of Cork City. One of the Fair Lane lads threw a stone & broke the skin of the Blackpool Band's room. Fisticuffs ensued. The Fair Lane Band managed to destroy the Blackpool drum & damage some instruments. The police dispersed the mob.
2 days later another Fair Lane group met at St Mary's
May 3, 2020 10 tweets 4 min read
23 years ago today, 3 May 1997, was a historic day for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland – Mo Mowlam aka Marjorie Mowlam was appointed as the first female Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. She became central to the ultimate Good Friday Agreement. Yet, she was later largely airbrushed from the official history. Was this because she was a woman?
A "magic mediator", she was as Peter Hain said following her death in 2005, "the catalyst that allowed politics to move forward which led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement".
Unlike
Apr 29, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
390 years ago today on 29 April 1630, the Lord Mayor & Corporation of Cork dealt with an issue arising out of the will of Stephen Skiddy a wealthy Cork-born wine merchant who lived in London. His 1584 will left £24 per annum for “ten of the City’s honest and poorest persons aged 50 and over”. The Vintners Federation in London still sends on the £24 payment annually to Skiddy’s charity. Skiddy’s first almshouse was located near the North Gate Bridge in Cork & opened in 1620, being destroyed in the 1690 Siege of Cork in 1690 but repaired. By 1718 it was
Apr 27, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
100 years ago today, 27 April 1920, Georgina Frost won a legal battle in the House of Lords allowing her to be Clerk of the Petty Sessions for Sixmilebridge & Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare, Ireland, becoming the first woman to hold public office in the then UK.
Under the Petty Sessions Clerk (Ireland) Act 1881 the appointment needed approval from the Lord Lieutenant, who rejected her appointment by the local magistrates telling them to appoint someone else.
Justice Dunbar Barton in the Chancery Court in Dublin, dismissed her claim, telling Tim Healy
Apr 24, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read
Issues have arisen in relation to the swearing of affidavits during the Covid19 lockdown. How did the practice come about in the first place?
The practice is rooted in the ancient concept of judicium dei, or divine judgment, shared by the early forms of proof in Anglo-Saxon law. Supernatural beings were believed to possess magic powers which could be invoked through an uttered curse and which would punish people who broke their promise. The oath was a traditional self-curse used as security for a promise. Eventually, the God of monotheistic religions
Apr 20, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read
66 years ago today, on April 20, 1954, a chapter in Irish legal history closed when Michael Manning, a 25-year-old carter from Limerick, became the 29th and last person to be legally executed in Ireland. He had raped and murdered Catherine Cooper (65) who worked at Barrington’s Hospital, in Limerick, in February 1953. He was found by the Gardai (police) because he had left a distinctive hat at the scene of the crime and was found with the yellow beret his victim had been wearing. Manning’s headpiece was, as Dermot Walsh described in his book on the