Researching Maurice Healy

He was one of twins, the third son born to Maurice, a Poor Law Union clerk, and Eliza Healy (née Sullivan) in Bantry. His mother died during the birth. As he grew up he became very close to his elder brother Tim Healy: they even married sisters. It is said that the nurse placed Maurice in the young Tim's arms and said, "This little boy has no mother now and you will have to be a mother to him." The orphaned children were effectively raised by their maternal grandmother, Jane Sullivan. The family moved to Lismore, where he was educated at the local Christian Brothers school.

Admitted as a solicitor in 1882, he practised as such and was returned to parliament four times, first as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for Cork city from 1885 to 1900, in which year standing as a Healyite nationalist he was defeated by William O'Brien in a bitter campaign. He was returned again for Cork city in May 1909 to January 1910. In 1910 for North East Cork, this time as a supporter and member of William O'Brien's All-for-Ireland Party (AFIL). From the December 1910 general election until the December 1918 general election he again represented Cork city.

His force in parliament was land law. He was a close confidant of his brother and although more retiring and stolid than his better known elder brother Tim Healy, he was considered the more intelligent and often acted as a counterbalance to his brother's emotionality. On the outbreak of World War I in 1914 a son of each enlisted in one of the Irish Divisions.

His uncle, Timothy Daniel Sullivan was also a member of parliament, as was his oldest brother, Thomas Joseph Healy and father-in-law A. M. Sullivan. His son, also called Maurice (1887–1943), educated at Clongowes Wood College stood unsuccessfully as an AFIL candidate for West Waterford in December 1910, was a regular contributor (including much satirical verse) to the O'Brienite Cork Free Press. Maurice (junior) moved to England after the founding of the Irish Free State where he was both a successful lawyer, and a broadcaster for the BBC during the early years of World War II. He wrote the well-known legal memoir The Old Munster Circuit and the popular Stay Me With Flagons: A Book about Wine and Other Things.

Maurice (senior) died at his residence, Ballintemple, Cork, on 9 November 1923 and was buried in St. Joseph's cemetery.

He was born in Cork, son of the well-known solicitor Maurice Healy and nephew of Timothy Michael Healy, the first Governor-General of the Irish Free State. His mother was a sister of A.M. Sullivan, who was the last barrister to hold the title Serjeant, and was noted for his unsuccessful defence of Roger Casement. Timothy Sullivan, the second Chief Justice of Ireland, was a cousin of Maurice, as was Kevin O'Higgins, a leading figure in the early Irish Free State Government.

Maurice was educated at Clongowes Wood College and University College Dublin. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1910, and to the English Bar in 1914 and saw action in the First World War on the Western Front and at Gallipoli. He received the MC in 1919 after serving in France and also in Germany during the immediate post-war occupation.

Maurice at one point stood for Parliament as a candidate for West Waterford. After the Irish War of Independence, while several of his close relatives became prominent political figures in the Irish Free State, he chose to practice at the English Bar. While he would have been happy enough to see Ireland gain Home Rule by peaceful means, he had a horror of revolutionary violence (although he also denounced the crimes committed by the Black and Tans) and he seems to have found life in the Irish Free State uncongenial. He was made King's Counsel in 1931. He became Recorder of Coventry in 1941; it was suggested this might be the prelude to a High Court judgeship, but any such hope was cut short by his premature death.

He wrote celebrated books on wine - Claret and the white wines of Bordeaux (1934), and Stay me with Flagons (1940). He also wrote poetry, mostly light and humorous. His most famous work is The Old Munster Circuit (1939) an affectionate and nostalgic portrait of life at the Irish Bar, especially on the Munster (Southern) Circuit between 1900 and 1920. The book was an instant success; the Spectator called it "Entirely delightful to read" and it has retained its popularity ever since.

With André Simon (who referred to Healy as 'my dearly beloved disciple') and others he founded the Saintsbury Club in 1931, which still meets today, reportedly stating that it should be created `to perpetuate and honour his name' (Professor George Saintsbury).

A legendary wit and conversationalist, Healy also made a number of celebrated BBC broadcasts during the war years.