Henry Barry, 4th Baron Barry of Santry

Henry Barry, 4th Baron Barry of Santry (1710–1751), often referred to simply as Lord Santry, was an Irish peer. He is unique in being the only member of the Irish House of Lords to be convicted of murder by his peers, for which crime he was sentenced to death. He later received a full pardon, but died when still a young man.

He was born in Dublin on 3 September 1710, only son of Henry Barry, 3rd Baron Barry of Santry, and Bridget Domvile, daughter of Sir Thomas Domvile, 1st Baronet, of Templeogue, and his first wife and cousin Elizabeth Lake, daughter of Sir Lancelot Lake. He succeeded to the title in 1735 and took his seat in the Irish House of Lords. He married firstly Anne Thornton, daughter of William Thornton of Finglas, who died in 1742, and secondly in 1750 Elizabeth Shore of Derby, but had no issue by either marriage. He died in Nottingham on 22 March 1751 and was buried at St. Nicholas' Church, Nottingham.

Lord Barry of Santry seems to have been the typical eighteenth-century rake, with a quarrelsome, drunken and violent nature. He was a member of the notorious Dublin Hellfire Club: the Club's reputation never recovered from the sensational publicity surrounding his trial for murder, although there is no reason to think that his fellow members condoned the crime. There were rumours that he had committed at least one previous murder which was successfully hushed up, although there seems to be no firm evidence for this.

On 9 August 1738, Lord Santry (as he was often known) was drinking with some friends at a tavern in Palmerstown, which is now a suburb but was then a small village near Dublin city. Santry, who had drunk even more heavily than usual, attacked a Mr Humphries, but was unable to draw his sword. Enraged, he ran to the kitchen, where he chanced to meet Laughlin Murphy, the tavern porter, and for no obvious reason ran him through with his sword. He bribed the innkeeper to help him escape. Murphy was taken to Dublin where he lingered for some weeks; he died on 25 September 1738.

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