Lardner, James Carrige Rushe

by Malachy McRoe

Lardner, James Carrige Rushe (1879–1925), lawyer and politician, was born 22 May 1879 at the Diamond, Monaghan town, the eldest of five children of Hugh William Lardner, a commercial traveller, and his wife Annie Lardner (née Loughran). He was educated at the local Christian Brothers' national school and St Macartan's Seminary, where he won a scholarship which enabled him to continue his education at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare (1894–5), where he completed a vocational course called the solicitor's preliminary. Returning to Monaghan in 1896, he became an apprentice solicitor in the office of Denis Carolan Rushe (qv), his grand-uncle. When Rushe was appointed the first secretary of Monaghan County Council (1900), Lardner took over his legal practice. He was then living with his parents and younger sister on the North Road in Monaghan town.

On 10 June 1907 in the Catholic Hall in Monaghan town, Lardner stood for selection as an Irish parliamentary party candidate for Monaghan North in an upcoming by-election, but was defeated by J. T. Donovan (1878–1922), a Belfast solicitor. Lardner refused to accept the result, claiming that the meeting had been packed with members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) who had voted en bloc for Donovan. Lardner and his supporters, mostly members of the United Irish League (UIL), reconvened the meeting at the Confraternity Hall nearby and nominated Lardner.

One week later, at an election rally in front of his solicitor's office in Monaghan, Lardner claimed the UIL as the legitimate successor to the organisations founded by Michael Davitt (qv). Donovan, however, claimed that all of the AOH delegates who had voted for him had been duly affiliated and declared his intention to stand. Only after John Redmond (qv) wrote an open letter to Donovan appealing against a contest between two nationalist candidates did he withdraw. In the by-election held on 20 June 1907, Lardner was returned unopposed for Monaghan North. He made his maiden speech in the commons with an intervention on the evicted tenants (Ireland) bill on 2 August 1907.

A few days later, Lardner returned home to thank his supporters and, more importantly, attack Tim Healy (qv), who he claimed had manipulated both Donovan and Joseph Devlin (qv) in the recent election, and had attempted to divide the IPP with his attacks on Redmond. Lardner was active in parliament throughout 1908, and in 1909 his twenty-six contributions far exceeded any of his previous interventions, with the passage and implementation of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, being his major priority. Lardner was re-elected for Monaghan North in the two general elections of 1910, and in August that year was elected grand high chief ranger of the Irish National Foresters, an overwhelmingly catholic, working-class movement, sprinkled with a few publicans and shopkeepers, that almost rivalled in size the more political and lower-middle-class AOH.

Lardner was called to the Irish bar (24 May 1913) and became a bencher of the King's Inns (28 October 1913). In the aftermath of the 1916 Easter rising he successfully defended James Quigley, a Co. Meath surveyor, who was tried at a military court for assisting the rebels at Ashbourne by signalling the location of police (Ir. Times, 10 June 1916). This was the only rebellion-related case to come before the court martial that resulted in an acquittal. He also represented victims' families in the inquest into the case of two unarmed civilian prisoners who had been summarily executed by a British soldier in the basement of a house in Dublin. In each case it was found that the prisoner had 'died of shock and haemorrhaging resulting from bullet wounds inflicted by a soldier in whose custody he was, an unarmed and unoffending prisoner'.

In 1918 Lardner announced his intention not to stand for parliament in the general election and in a public letter to Thomas Toal, chairman of Monaghan County Council, expressed his concern at the British government's intention permanently to partition Ireland. From this time he concentrated primarily on his legal career, especially in areas such as nisi prius and bankruptcy. His services were readily sought by public bodies, and he rented an extra office at 4 Leinster Street in Dublin. He also became a director of the Dublin and South Eastern Railway Company. In 1921 he took silk and the following year was accepted into legal practice of Gray's Inn in London. He had by now eschewed all public interest in politics. At the age of 45 he died on 3 May 1925 in Bournemouth, where he had gone to recuperate after several intestinal operations. Lardner married (1920) Rita, daughter of Sir Joseph Downes (1848–1925), a nationalist alderman, high sheriff of Dublin and a director of Hibernian General Insurance Ltd; they had two sons.