Richard Lalor Sheil (17 August 1791 – 23 May 1851) was an Irish politician, writer and orator. The family was temporarily domiciled at Drumdowney while their new mansion at Bellevue, near Waterford, was under construction.
Life
He was born on 17 August 1791 in Drumdowney, Slieverue, County Kilkenny, Ireland. His father was Edward Sheil, who had acquired considerable wealth in Cádiz in southern Spain and owned an estate in County Tipperary. His mother was Catherine McCarthy of Springhouse, near Bansha, County Tipperary, a member of the old aristocratic family of MacCarthy Reagh of Springhouse, who in their time were Princes of Carbery and Counts Mac-Carthy Reagh in France. The son was taught French and Latin by the Abbé de Grimeau, a French refugee. He was then sent to a Catholic school in Kensington, London, presided over by a French nobleman, M. de Broglie. For a time he attended the lay college in St Patrick's College, Maynooth. In October 1804, he was removed to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, and in November 1807 entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he specially distinguished himself in the debates of the Historical Society.
After taking his degree in 1811 he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the Irish bar in 1814. Sheil was one of the founders of the Catholic Association in 1823 and drew up the petition for inquiry into the mode of administering the laws in Ireland, which was presented in that year to both Houses of Parliament.</blockquote>
Works
Shiel's play, Adelaide, or the Emigrants, was performed at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin, on 19 February 1814, with success, and, on 23 May 1816, it was performed at Covent Garden in London. The Apostate, produced at the latter theatre on 3 May 1817, established his reputation as a dramatist. His other principal plays are Bellamira (written in 1818), Evadne (1819), Damon and Pythias (1821), Huguenot (produced in 1822) and Montini (1820).
In 1822, Sheil began, with William Henry Curran, to contribute to the New Monthly Magazine a series of papers entitled "Sketches of the Irish Bar". Curran in fact did most of the writing. These pieces were edited by Marmion Wilme Savage in 1855 in two volumes, under the title of Sketches Legal and Political. Sheil's Speeches were edited in 1845 by Thomas MacNevin.
Family
In 1816, Sheil married a Miss O'Halloran, niece of Sir William MacMahon, Master of the Rolls in Ireland. They had one son, who predeceased Sheil. His wife died in January 1822. In July 1830, he married Anastasia Lalor Power, a widow. He then added the middle name Lalor.