Edward Lysaght
Edward Lysaght was an Irish poet and wit. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford, he practiced law in both England and Ireland before settling in Dublin, where he became a well-known literary figure. He is now remembered for his patriotic Irish songs.
Life
Edward Lysaght, born 21 December 1763, was the son of John Lysaght of Brickhill, a gentleman of respected protestant family in county Clare. His mother was Jane Eyre, daughter of Edward Dalton of Deerpark in the same county. He was educated at Dr. Hare's school at Cashel and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated BA. He was incorporated in the same degree at Oxford as a member of St Edmund Hall, and proceeded MA at Oxford in 1788. In 1784 he became a student at the Middle Temple, London, and at the King's Inns, Dublin. In Easter term 1788 he was called to the English bar, joining the profession in Ireland later in the same year. He spent some years in England, being employed as counsel in many election petitions, and he acted in that capacity for Samuel, Lord Hood, in the petition arising out of the celebrated Westminster contest with Charles James Fox in 1784. Ultimately he abandoned the English for the Irish bar, and, becoming a member of the Munster circuit, enjoyed for a time considerable practice. He was appointed a commissioner of bankruptcy, and a few months before his death was made a police magistrate for Dublin.The last seventeen years of Lysaght's life were spent mainly in Dublin, where he became a notable figure in society, especially in literary and theatrical circles, and achieved a reputation as bon vivant, wit, and improvisatore. He was also a political squib writer and pamphleteer. Barrington states in his Personal Sketches that, though posing as an opponent of the Union, he took 400l from Castlereagh to write in the government interest. This statement wants authority, and was probably penned in revenge for a lampoon by Lysaght on Barrington's book in a paper called The Lantern. Lysaght died in 1810 or 1811 in very impoverished circumstances. A subscription raised by the bench and bar of Ireland for the benefit of his widow and two daughters realised 2,484l.