Many congratulations to our esteemed friend Chris Lawlor who also happens to be our WWHS treasurer and an accomplished author on the launch of his latest book. The well-attended event took place on Thursday 12 December 2024 at The Fox in the Bunditch in Dunlavin, County Wicklow. The book entitled Robert Barton: A Remarkable Revolutionary is published by The History Press. This biography recounts the complex and conflicted life and loyalties of a famous Wicklow politician, lawyer and businessman. Chris’s book was launched by his former pupil Brian Crowley, who is now the Collections Curator of Kilmainham Gaol Museum and Jim Whittle, another member of WWHS, acted as Master of Ceremonies for the evening.
We learned on the night that Robert Barton was a nationalist politician who was elected as the Sinn Féin member for Wicklow West in the 1918 general election. He was one of the Irish plenipotentiaries who travelled to London for the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Although he signed the treaty and voted for it in the Dáil. In 1923 he retired from politics in favour of the law and practised as a barrister and later as a judge. He was chairman of the Agricultural Credit Corporation for twenty years from its foundation in 1934. He died at his Wicklow home in august 1976 at the age of 94 – the last surviving signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
This much over-due biography of Robert Barton –Robert Barton : a Remarkable Revolutionary – is available at all good book shops and online.
Photo (L to R): Paul Gorry, Brian Crowley, Jim Whittle and Chris Lawlor launch the book with a glass of B&G (Barton & Guestier) wine, a brand founded in France by Robert Barton’s ancestor.