We worry about punctuation on this site with good reason. Casement was found guilty of treason, and subsequently hanged, because the court implied a comma into a Norman-French law.
18 November 2016
this leaden paul
Declined to drink Um Bongo (q.v.) whilst assigned to the Congo. Once met Kaiser Bill’s batman. Prosecuted by the future Earl of Birkenhead (q.v.). Not believed to be related to disco singer Amii Stewart.
18 November 2016
EXXO
I remember when we studied that trial in school it was a moment when I really did swing towards maybe choosing to do Law at college, and that’s what the history teacher was deliberately trying to do, with me trying to resist. Maybe he was right though, Law would maybe have motivated me more at college and later.
The history syllabus focused massively on the ‘Irish question’ in UK history and didn’t demand any detail about the trial itself, but we studied it for days ‘cos he reckoned some of us would be cut out for ‘the bar’. He was a Tory and more than once tried to get us to admire the (to me) horrible Lord Birkenhead (probably the school’s most famous ‘old Birk’).
Anyway the ‘hanged on a comma’ thing always sounds worse than it was, because it was really Casement’s own defence counsel who was trying to argue that something that obviously was treason within the spirit of the law wasn’t, and all the arguing about sub-clauses of old statutes and their commas was ultimately the result of defence pedantry rather than prosecution pedantry.
Having said which I hasten to add that I’ve always believed English rule in Ireland was wrong. and that Casement was an admirable patriot … and even more admirable in his earlier career, obviously.
18 November 2016
EXXO
By the way that was not the same History teacher I mentioned in the ‘Israel’ thread in the A-Z, that one an Eighth Army veteran and a lifelong socialist. Birkenhead’s ‘history boys’ were very privileged indeed.
18 November 2016
theqwill10
Many a GAA club and venue have been named after him.
20 November 2016
dickhead in quicksand
A truly great humanitarian, despite his dodgy private life and his political misjudgments. Worth ten* of FE Smith, Lord Birkenhead.
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
We worry about punctuation on this site with good reason. Casement was found guilty of treason, and subsequently hanged, because the court implied a comma into a Norman-French law.
18 November 2016
this leaden paul
Declined to drink Um Bongo (q.v.) whilst assigned to the Congo. Once met Kaiser Bill’s batman. Prosecuted by the future Earl of Birkenhead (q.v.). Not believed to be related to disco singer Amii Stewart.
18 November 2016
EXXO
I remember when we studied that trial in school it was a moment when I really did swing towards maybe choosing to do Law at college, and that’s what the history teacher was deliberately trying to do, with me trying to resist. Maybe he was right though, Law would maybe have motivated me more at college and later.
The history syllabus focused massively on the ‘Irish question’ in UK history and didn’t demand any detail about the trial itself, but we studied it for days ‘cos he reckoned some of us would be cut out for ‘the bar’. He was a Tory and more than once tried to get us to admire the (to me) horrible Lord Birkenhead (probably the school’s most famous ‘old Birk’).
Anyway the ‘hanged on a comma’ thing always sounds worse than it was, because it was really Casement’s own defence counsel who was trying to argue that something that obviously was treason within the spirit of the law wasn’t, and all the arguing about sub-clauses of old statutes and their commas was ultimately the result of defence pedantry rather than prosecution pedantry.
Having said which I hasten to add that I’ve always believed English rule in Ireland was wrong. and that Casement was an admirable patriot … and even more admirable in his earlier career, obviously.
18 November 2016
EXXO
By the way that was not the same History teacher I mentioned in the ‘Israel’ thread in the A-Z, that one an Eighth Army veteran and a lifelong socialist. Birkenhead’s ‘history boys’ were very privileged indeed.
18 November 2016
theqwill10
Many a GAA club and venue have been named after him.
20 November 2016
dickhead in quicksand
A truly great humanitarian, despite his dodgy private life and his political misjudgments. Worth ten* of FE Smith, Lord Birkenhead.
*Your mileage may vary.
21 November 2016