Rickard Deasy

For the Irish farming campaigner, see Rickard Deasy (campaigner).

Rickard Deasy PC (1812 – 6 May 1883) was an Irish lawyer and judge.

He was born at Phale Court, Enniskean, County Cork, the second son of Rickard Deasy, a wealthy brewer, and his wife Mary Anne Cotton. He was educated at the University of Dublin, where he graduated with a Doctorate of Law. He was called to the Irish Bar, and became Queen's Counsel.

He married Monica O'Connor and had three children, of whom two died young. His only surviving son was Henry Hugh Peter Deasy, the soldier and writer, author of In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan, and founder of the Deasy Motor Car Company.

Deasy was elected as Member of Parliament for County Cork on 23 April 1855 in a by-election following Edmond Roche's elevation to the peerage. He was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland in 1859 and then made Attorney-General for Ireland in 1860, being also appointed to the Irish Privy Council (on 21 February). On the death of Richard Wilson Greene in 1861 Deasy was raised to the bench as a Baron of the Exchequer. He was appointed to the Irish Court of Appeal in 1878, and served on that court until his death in 1883.

His name is permanently associated with the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment (Ireland) Act 1860, universally known as Deasy's Act, which as Attorney General he steered through Parliament.

References

• F. Elrington Ball, The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921, John Murray, London 1926

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Rickard Deasy