Tristram Kennedy

Tristram Edward Kennedy (27 June 1805 – 20 November 1885) was an Irish Liberal, Whig and Independent Irish Party politician, and lawyer. Family Born at Inishowen, County Donegal, Kennedy was the twelfth child of Church of Ireland clergyman John Pitt Kennedy and Mary Cary, daughter of Thomas Cary. In 1862, he married Sarah Helen Margaret Graham, daughter of George Templar Graham and Frances Margaret Golightly, and together they had seven children: Horace Graham Kennedy (born 1863) George Portalés (died as an infant) Tristram Edward Whiteside Kennedy (born 1866) Pitt Shadwell Portalés Kennedy (1868–1911) Francis Malcolm Evory Kennedy (born 1869), an officer in the Worcestershire Regiment Theodora (died as an infant) Caroline Mary Dorothea Kennedy (born 1880) Legal career He was educated at Derry Free Grammar School, becoming an attorney and then, in 1828, High Sheriff of Londonderry City. In that role, he chaired a lengthy and controversial debate between Protestant and Catholic clergyman, winning admiration from both sides. However, in 1829, he was struck off the roll of attorneys, and entered Lincoln's Inn and King's Inns in Dublin, before being called to the bar of Ireland in 1834, aiming to improve legal education standards. In doing this, he opened the Dublin Law Institute in 1839, starting the education of a subject not taught systematically in Ireland for at least 200 years. This campaign to reform legal education was widely supported, and helped by Waterford City MP Thomas Wyse. It was also said to stimulate the academic study of English law at British and Irish universities, sped up the introduction of qualifications, and pointed out ideological rationale at the time that attorneys must attend English law inns before being able to practice on the Irish Bar.