St George Daly

St George Daly(1758 – December 1829) was an Irish judge, who had a reputation for ignorance of the law. He owed his career advancement entirely to his support for theAct of Union 1801,which did nothing to enhance his standing in the legal profession.

Background

He was the fifth son ofJames DalyMP, of Carrownakelly and Dunsandle, by his second wife Catherine Gore, daughter ofSir Ralph Gore, 4th Baronetand Elizabeth Ashe, daughter ofSt George Ashe,Bishop of Derryand Jane St. George.He was educated atTrinity College, Dublin,enteredLincoln's Inn,and was called to theIrish Barin 1783.Denis Daly,a much respected but short-lived politician, was his eldest brother. The Dalys were a long-established landowning family in County Galway. Though traditionallyRoman Catholics,and ofGaelicorigin, they managed to hold onto their lands by embracing theProtestantfaith and renouncing their loyalty to theStuart dynasty.

Career

In January 1798 he was elected to theIrish House of Commonsas one of the two Members of Parliament for thepocket boroughofGalway.When the Irish House of Commons was abolished by theAct of Union 1800,(which Daly strongly supported)Galway's representation was reduced to one. The other MP,George Ponsonby,resigned, leaving Daly as the sole MP.He becamePrime Serjeant-at-lawin 1799, much against the wishes of the legal profession, who had greatly admired his predecessorJames Fitzgerald (1742-1835);Fitzgerald had been dismissed for opposing the Union.He was appointed to theIrish Privy Councilon 16 December 1800.He was the first MP forGalway Boroughin the newHouse of Commons of the United Kingdombut vacated his seat on 21 February 1801on appointment as a Baron of theCourt of Exchequer (Ireland);John Brabazon Ponsonbywas elected to succeed him on 10 March.On 3 November 1803 he transferred from the Court of Exchequer to theCourt of King's Bench (Ireland),serving until his resignation in 1822. He was one of the judges at the trials following theRobert Emmet Rebellionin 1803.He presided in 1817 at the trial of the eccentric writerRoger O'Connorforhighway robberyand is said to have pressed hard for anacquittal.O'Connor was duly found not guilty, though public suspicion about his guilt never died.

Reputation

The reputation of the Irish Bench in the years after the Act of Union was very low: several High Court judges, including Daly, were universally believed to owe their elevation solely to their support for the Union, and his appointment was badly received by the legal profession.It was said of Daly that, while he had been a good student, and was reasonably well-read, he had never held even a dozen briefs in his whole career, and that barristers mocked his ignorance of the law in open court.He did at least come from a family with a tradition of judicial service: his great-grandfather, the firstDenis Daly,had been a judge of theCourt of Common Pleas (Ireland)during the reign ofJames II.He was also a man of blameless life, though retiring in disposition and generally unpopular.If no lawyer, he did have a reputation for common sense.

Family

He lived atEyrecourtinCounty Galway.In 1803 he married his cousin Louisa, daughter of Richard Gore of Sandymount,County Wicklowand Martha Fiott, but had no children. She died in 1816