Christopher Palles: ‘the greatest of the Irish judges’
Historian Jonathan Smyth's latest edition looks at Christopher Palles - one of the greatest of the Irish judges with Cavan roots...
By the time V.T.H. Delany had written his biography on Chief Baron Christopher Palles, some forty years had elapsed since the time of the famous judge had died in 1920. Delany called Palles ‘the last of the Barons of the Exchequer and the greatest of the Irish judges’. By the 1960s, Ireland as an independent nation had undergone enormous social and political change since Palles passing and yet the legal system remained ‘almost unchanged’. Delany’s book set out to discover Palles the man, as opposed to Palles the career-man. This must have been a daunting task since most of the Chief Baron’s contemporaries had gone on to their eternal reward. Many people assisted Delany in his task, including Palles grandniece Mrs. Irma Waddell. The Palles family estate was in Mountnugent, Co Cavan.
Even though the family seat was in Mountnugent, the Palles largely conducted their business in Dublin. Christopher Palles was born on Christmas Day, 1831 to Andrew Christopher Palles ‘an attorney and solicitor’ and his wife Eleanor Plunkett. Andrew was in the process of establishing himself as a practitioner in law when Christopher was born at number five Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin. His father had inherited ‘a considerable landed property’ known as Mount Palles, near Mountnugent. Andrew and Eleanor Palles children were Andrew jnr., born in 1829; James who died as an infant; Christopher (Chief Baron); then James Ambrose; followed by Elizabeth who died in 1872; and Marcella who was to marry ‘Columbus Drake of Roriston, Co Meath.’
In regard to the family name, Delany wrote: ‘The family name is not an Irish one in origin, and an investigation of the family history reveals the interesting fact that the first of the line to come to Ireland was no less a personage than a Papal legate who afterwards became Archbishop of Armagh’. The ‘Papal legate’ was a man named Octavian de Palatio’, of Lombardy, who came to Ireland prior to 1477 and in that same year received directions from Pope Sixtus IV to take charge of the ‘See of Armagh’. The appointment was in opposition to a ‘rival candidate’, Edmund Connesburgh who received the support of the English crown and bishops. However, the matter was eventually resolved in favour of de Palatio who was officially confirmed as Archbishop in a role he held for the next thirty-five years.
One of the earliest references to the Palles family living in Cavan was made in 1641 when two brothers, Andrew and William, both being outlawed were recorded as living at ‘Cloncavat in the county Cavan’. In the middle of the eighteenth century the family seat at Mount Palles was established when the property was inherited from Mary Plunkett, the wife of yet another Andrew Palles. Mary Plunkett was a descendant of Lord Killeen, the Earl of Fingall and she had connections to the Plunketts of Rathmore and Dunsany.
As Catholic landholders who remained steadfast to the ‘ancient faith’ the Palles faced many ups and downs in their fortunes. Delany further added that the family papers shed an interesting light on the treatment of ‘Roman Catholic landowners’ during the ‘period of the penal laws which he refers to as that ‘unhappy system’. In order for the Palles to hold on to their lands, it was revealed through family papers that the surrounding neighbours in Cavan had entered ‘into collusive discoveries in order to enable the Palles family to retain its lands’. Some branches of Palles also joined the Church of Ireland to hold on to property.
Christopher Palles, the future Chief Baron, was educated alongside his brother Andrew in Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare. The boys’ parents Andrew and Eleanor, took a close interest in how the school was educating their children. Delany’s book reprints a letter addressed to the College Rector from Mrs Palles which stated: ‘Mr Palles wished me to write to you to say that he would be glad if you would allow our boys to sleep a little longer than they do; after this winter they will not find getting up so early so hard; also he wishes they should both learn drawing.’
Afterwards, Christopher attended Trinity College Dublin, then going on to King’s Inn, Dublin and later Gray’s Inn, London. In 1853, he was called to the bar and nineteen years later he was appointed by Gladstone to the role of Solicitor General for Ireland. He took silk in 1865 and it is worth mentioning that Palles always seemed to have been involved in every important case. When he became Solicitor General for Ireland, the word on the street was that Christopher Palles ‘had everybody at his feet and some of the judges also’. He married Ellen Doyle the only daughter of Dennis Doyle in 1852 and they had one son.
After he was appointed Attorney General, he entered politics and contested a by-election for Derry City as a Liberal candidate. He stood against a Home Rule and a Conservative candidate which had the effect of splitting the Catholic vote and enabling the Conservative to win. The Home Rule candidates on that occasion were Joseph G. Biggar ‘a Belfast Presbyterian’ who later became the elected member for Cavan, and Bartholomew McCorkell who obtained only two votes. In the end, the Conservative candidate won against Palles with more than174 extra votes. Palles was raised to the bench in 1874, and over the years, in his dealings in the High Courts, people considered him to be a fair and impartial person.
Having served on the bench for forty-two years Palles retired at the age of eighty-five years, in 1916. Four years later, in February 1920, Chief Baron Christopher Palles died on a Saturday morning at half past ten in his home, Mount Anville House, Dundrum, Dublin. His obituary in this newspaper carried the headline ‘Great Cavan Man Dead’ while noting that: ‘On Monday, his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin celebrated Low Mass in St. Franxcis Xavier’s Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin’. Afterwards, his burial took place at Glasnevin Cemetery. Later that Monday afternoon, the judges from the Four Courts came together to celebrate the life of one whom they believed to be the greatest lawman of their generation. Christopher Palles papers are now preserved as a part of UCD’s ‘Special Libraries Collections’.
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