Hugh Holmes

Hugh Holmes QC (17 February 1840 – 19 April 1916) was an Irish Conservative Party then after 1886 a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom Parliament and subsequently a Judge of the High Court and Court of Appeal in Ireland.

Background and education

Holmes was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, the son of William Holmes of Dungannon and Anne Maxwell. He attended Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the English bar in 1864 and to the Irish bar in 1865.

Legal and judicial career

Holmes became a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1877. he was appointed Solicitor General for Ireland on 14 December 1878 and served until the Conservative government was defeated in 1880. He became Attorney General for Ireland 1885–1886 and 1886–1887. He was made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland on 2 July 1885. He was MP for Dublin University 1885–1887.

Holmes retired from the House of Commons when he was appointed a Judge in 1887. He was a Justice of the Common Pleas Division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland until 1888 when he became a Justice of the Queen's Bench Division. He was promoted to be a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1897. Ill health caused his retirement in 1914.

He appeared to be a stern judge, who did not suffer fools gladly and often imposed severe sentences in criminal cases. His judgments did however display some good humour and humanity and the sentences he imposed sometimes were less severe than those he actually announced in Court.The quality of his judgments was 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. Among his more celebrated remarks is that the Irish " have too much of a sense of humour to dance around a maypole".

Family

In 1869 Hugh Holmes married Olivia Moule of Elmley-Lovett, Worcestershire ; she died in 1901. Their children included Hugh junior, Valentine (like his father a very successful barrister) and Violet, who married Sir Denis Henry, 1st Baronet, the first Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland.

References

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hugh Holmes

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by David Plunket Edward Gibson	Member of Parliament for Dublin University 1885–1887 With: David Plunket	Succeeded by David Plunket Dodgson Hamilton Madden
Legal offices
Preceded by Gerald Fitzgibbon	Solicitor-General for Ireland 1878–1880	Succeeded by William Moore Johnson
Preceded by Samuel Walker	Attorney-General for Ireland 1885–1886	Succeeded by Samuel Walker
Preceded by Samuel Walker	Attorney-General for Ireland 1886–1887	Succeeded by John George Gibson