| Description |
xii, 228 pages, 20 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), folded genealogical table, map ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction -- 1. The Barrys of County Cork -- 2. A Barry of Ballyclough House -- 3. The voyage out -- 4. A Port Phillippian -- 5. Contests -- 6. Cultural Commissar -- 7. 'Annus Mirabilis", 1862 -- 8. The Sabine farm -- 9. The public man -- 10. Revelations |
| Summary |
Sir Redmond Barry was the pre-eminent figure in Melbourne of the middle years of last century. A Supreme Court judge for thirty years, he was the founding and sustaining force behind the University of Melbourne, the Supreme Court Library, the Public Library, the National Gallery and the Museum. As social and cultural benefactor, he stands alone. Paradox pervaded his life. While seen by many as a hidebound, even villainous judge, his trust in the rule of law underpinned, for example, an unusually sympathetic and active response to the Aboriginal people. Yet fear of losing social standing and his Irish family's esteem blinkered him to injustice on his own doorstep. The story of his unacknowledged relationship of thirty years with Louisa Barrow, and of their four illegitimate children, is perplexing and often painful in the telling. Barry sentenced Ned Kelly to hang, and Sidney Nolan's 'Kelly' paintings have fixed him in the public mind as a harsh, unfeeling judge. Fear was at work there too - fear of a violent rural underclass such as had threatened his beloved childhood home in Ireland. This important biography is long overdue, probably because of the challenging complexities and sheer scale of Barry's life, both public and private. Ann Galbally, undaunted, tackles the full gamut of his interests, achievements, strengths, weaknesses, and concludes that "No one replaced him...no one could." |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 210-217 |
| Subject |
Barry, Redmond, Sir, 1813-1880.
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Judges -- Australia -- Biography.
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Judges -- Australia -- Victoria -- Biography.
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| SUBJECT |
Melbourne (Vic.) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79029787 -- Intellectual life -- 19th century.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00006345
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Victoria http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79046608 -- Biography.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99001237
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Victoria -- History http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh86007556 -- 1834-1900
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Victoria http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79046608 -- Social conditions http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001008850 -- 1834-1900
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
|
| LC no. |
95147621 |
| ISBN |
0522845169 |
|
