The Dublin Castle homosexual scandal of 1884 is a complex story. It involves more than a dozen characters that were introduced over a series of separate criminal trials. All sections of society were involved. The upper echelons of serving police detectives, eminent civil servants and British Army captains. Aspirational middle-class bank clerks and Trinity college graduates. Right down to the semi-blind brothel-keepers and young male prostitutes who were described as “persons of the lowest class of life”. All of these men were accused in newspapers and in court of having same-sex physical relationships. Irish society was shocked.

My main interest is in one specific aspect of the scandal – the backgrounds and post-prison lives of three men who were convicted of running homosexual brothels in the city in 1884.

But before that, a very brief background.

Tim Healy (Irish Nationalist MP) accused two high-ranking British establishment figures, of being homosexual in the United Irishman newspaper edited by William O’Brien MP. They were:

James Ellis French (43) (1842-?), Detective Director of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and County Inspector for Cork, who lived at Bessborough Terrace off the North Circular Road

(43) (1842-?), Detective Director of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and County Inspector for Cork, who lived at Bessborough Terrace off the North Circular Road Gustavus Charles Cornwall (62) (1822-1903), Secretary of the General Post Office (GPO) who lived at 17 Harcourt Street.

Both men had little choice but to sue the newspaper to uphold their reputations. French backed off as there was multiple evidence of his sexual relationships with young police officers. He retired from the RIC on the grounds of being medically unfit.

Cornwall, who was known by the nickname ‘the Duchess’, pressed on with his libel action and it went to court on 2 July 1884.

O’Brien’s solicitors and his private detective managed to convince three men to give evidence against Cornwall. They were:

Malcolm Johnston (21) known as ‘Conny’ or ‘Connie Clyde’ or ‘Connie Taylor’. A Trinity-educated student of ‘private means’ whose father ran a bakery business in Ballsbridge which later became ‘Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien’.

(21) known as ‘Conny’ or ‘Connie Clyde’ or ‘Connie Taylor’. A Trinity-educated student of ‘private means’ whose father ran a bakery business in Ballsbridge which later became ‘Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien’. Alfred McKiernan / McKernan (25), from Pembroke Road, who was employed as a clerk in the Munster Bank for 16 years

/ (25), from Pembroke Road, who was employed as a clerk in the Munster Bank for 16 years George Taylor (33) known as the ‘Maid of Athens’. A former Royal College Surgeons medical student who was employed as a clerk in the British and Irish Steam Packet Company for four years

Another ‘Dublin Castle’ figure who was accused of being homosexual in court was:

Captain Martin Oranmore Kirwan (37) (1847-1904) of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, (aka ‘Lizzie’), who lived at 42 Upper Mount Street

Cornwall denied all the allegations. The trial lasted five days but the jury took only an hour to find Cornwall guilty. He was charged with buggery and with conspiracy to corrupt young men.

O’Brien’s supporters held street parties in celebration outside the offices of the United Ireland newspaper and bonfires were supposedly lit around the country.

As a result of the evidence given in this trial, James Ellis French was arrested and brought to trial on 5 August 1884. He was charged with the attempted buggery of George Taylor and the soliciting of Malcolm Johnstone.

Malcom Johnstone, Alfred McKiernan, George Taylor – the witnesses from the first trial – were charged along with James Ellis French and two other individuals:

Major Albert de Fernandez , a British Army surgeon in the Grenadier Guards

, a British Army surgeon in the Grenadier Guards Johnston Lyttle (20), son a Protestant clergyman, and employee of Jameson’s distillery, Bow Street

Many other men fled the county to escape arrest including Charles Fitzgerald (26) of Dalkey, whose father ran a wine business in Brunswick Street; Police Inspector Esmond of the B Division and Richard Boyle, Chairman of the Dublin Stock Exchange.

The cases against Malcolm Johnston and Lyttle were dropped; Cornwall was acquitted; de Fernandez was found not guilty and French was found guilty and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour in December 1884.

The trial was a political victory for Irish Nationalists like Tim Healy and William O’Brien. As Jonathan Coleman has written, it was their “masterful, practiced rhetoric” that led Dublin Castle to be portrayed in the hearts and minds of the Irish public as “a bastion of corrupting, leprous perverts preying on the literal flesh of young Ireland—a powerful image for Irish nationalists.”

It was revealed in court that liaisons and meetings took place between the various characters in the many locations around Dublin – the hothouses at the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin; at a ‘musical party’ in a house on Raglan Road; the back seats of the Queen’s Theatre and the Gaiety Theatre; the urinal behind the Moore statue; laneways off Brunswick Street and Cornwall’s home. A lot of other activity happened in three brothels ran by three middle-aged men who were convicted in the August 1884 trial. Who were they and what happened to them?

– Daniel Considine (41), a blind Protestant basketmaker and former school teacher, who was charged with keeping a room “for the purpose … of buggery” at his lodgings at 10 Great Ship Street in the shadow of Dublin Castle. He was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum punishment of two years hard labour.

– Robert Fowler (60), a Protestant toymaker, who lived in nearby 43 Golden Lane who was charged and found guilty of the same offence.

– James Pillar (63), a married Quaker grocer and merchant, who pleaded guilty to the charge of buggery and was sentenced to twenty years penal servitude. Pillar’s business premises at 56 Lower Rathmines Road beside Portobello Barracks was revealed to be a key meeting point for this homosexual network. Was it his Quaker beliefs that led to him pleading guilty to the charge? We can only guess.

All three men died before the century was out, two in desolation in the workhouse.

I’ve mapped out the locations of brothels and private residences of Considine (purple), Fowler (green) and Pillar (blue):

Daniel Considine was born in 1843 in Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin. In May 1884, he was charged with assaulting a police officer and sentenced to a fortnight’s imprisonment. Later that year, he was charged with running a brothel at 10 Great Ship Street. Considine told the court that in his youth he used to perform in drag at balls and at “little parties” in Dublin Castle.

The prison records described him as blind, 5ft 10inches with grey hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Assuming he served his full sentence, Considine was released from prison on 4 August 1886. Two years later he charged with assault but the case was dismissed in court.

In April 1898, Daniel Considine of 31 Jervis Street was admitted into the North Dublin Union workhouse. He died there on 18 April 1898 aged 55 of bright’s disease (chronic inflammation of the kidneys.). He was described as a ‘dealer’ and single.

Robert Fowler was born in 1823 or 1824 in London, England. The first records of him in Dublin date from July 1843 when he was charged with “attempting to violate” a woman named Mary but was found not guilty in court. In August 1864, he was described as a basket maker of 1 Bride Street when up on the charge of breaking glass of an unknown premises and sentenced to 10 days imprisonment.

In 1884, he was charged with running a brothel at 43 Golden Lane and it was revealed that his friends and lovers knew him as ‘Mother Fowler’.

The prison records described him as 5ft 6inches with grey hair, grey eyes and a sallow complexion.

Assuming he served his full sentence, Fowler was also released from prison on 4 August 1886. In December of that year, Robert Fowler (63), a toymaker of 42 Upper Kevin Street, was charged with ‘vagrancy’ (i.e. homelessness) and sentenced to one month hard labour. He was convicted of the same offence in March 1889.

Robert Fowler died in the South Dublin Union workhouse on 1 September 1889 aged 65. His death certificate listed his occupation as ‘artist’.

was born on 2 February 1822 in Culkeeran, Dungannon, County Tyrone.

Griffith’s Valuation shows that he had a wine and grocery business at 56 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin from at least 1850.

He married Susanna Pillar (née Hudson) (1822 – 1894) in 1847 and had three children: Charles Henry Pillar (1851-1910), Frederick James Pillar (1852-?) and Susanna Pillar (1857-1928).

At the time of the 1884 scandal, the Pillar family were living at 63 Palmerston Road. He was known to his friends and lovers as ‘Papa’ or ‘Pa’.

Pillar was charged with committing buggery with Malcolm Johnston; George Taylor; Villiers Sankey; Private Odell and with conspiring with Clarke; Daniel Considine; Robert Fowler; Michael McGrane; Thomas Allen and William Carter.

The Richmond prison records described him as 5ft 6inches with grey hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion.

Pillar served half of his 20 year sentence according to author Glenn Chandler and was released in 1894. He didn’t last very long on the outside. Records show that James Pillar died in Mercers Hospital, Dublin on 24 November 1894 aged 72. He was a listed as a merchant of Ballin?, Wicklow.

Further reading

The Dublin Castle scandal offer a fascinating glimpse into the underground gay scene of 1880s Dublin which cut through all sections of society. It’s also significant for preceding a number of other key LGBT milestones – the Oscar Wilde libel trials (1895) in London; the Cleveland Street scandal (1899); the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels (1907) which revealed a homosexual network within Dublin Castle and the emergence of the Roger Casement diaries (1916).

+ Glenn Chandler – The Sins of Jack Saul (Grosvenor House, 2016) – Chs. 8-10

+ Jonathan Coleman – Rent: Same-Sex Prostitution in Modern Britain, 1885-1957 – Ch. 3

+ Averill Earls – Queer Politics: The Dublin Castle Scandal of 1884 (2018 Podcast)

+ Brian Lacey – Terrible Queer Creatures: Homosexuality in Irish History (Wordwell Books, 2008)- Ch. 11