SHEEHY, Edward. May It Please The Court [WITH A CHAPTER ON JAMES JOYCE]

Illustrated. Dublin: Fallon, 1951. Octavo. pp. xi, 154, [2]. Blue cloth, titled in gilt. A fine copy.

“This book deals with my life at School and in the University, as a Civil Servant, as a Soldier in the First World War, as
a Member of the Irish Bar and as a Circuit Judge. I have something to say also about my hours at play. In dealing with
each phase of my career I have relied on a sense of humour and an excellent memory to sift out some incidents, stories
or adventures which I hope may interest or entertain the reader. I was a fairly intimate companion of James Joyce, both
at Belvedere College and at University College, Dublin, and what I write concerning the lighter side of his career in the
days of his boyhood and early manhood may be of interest to his admirers. Tom Kettle and Francis Sheehy Skeffington
were brothers-in-law of mine, and I present a close-up picture of those two gifted and patriotic Irishmen. As a member
of the Irish Bar and as a Judge I have stories to relate which reflect the wit and humour which play about the Irish
Courts of Law ... Finally, as one of the many thousands of Irish Nationalists who joined the British Army in the 1914-
18 War, I relate some of my experiences as an officer in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers; and I have something to say of the
bitter disillusionment with which, at the end of the conflict which was supposed to be waged on behalf of the liberty of
small nations, we saw our own little Island still divided and in chains” Preface.

[L3 1F]