Richard Dowse

Richard Dowse PC
Caricature by Ape published in Vanity Fair in 1871.
Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Londonderry City
In office 1868–1872
Preceded by	Lord Claud Hamilton
Succeeded by	Charles Edward Lewis

Richard Dowse PC (1824 – 14 March 1890) was an Irish politician, barrister and judge, reputed to be the wittiest orator of his time.

He was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, eldest son of William Dowse and Maria Donaldson. He was educated at the Royal School Dungannon and the University of Dublin, entered Lincoln's Inn in 1849 and was called to the Irish Bar in 1852. After practicing for some years on the North-West Circuit, he became Queen's Counsel in 1863 and Third Serjeant in 1867.

He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Londonderry City at the 1868 general election. He was appointed a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) in 1872, having served as Attorney-General and Solicitor-General for Ireland Dowse resided at 38 Mountjoy Square in Dublin's north city centre.

He died suddenly while holding the assizes in Tralee, County Kerry in March 1890.

On 29 December 1852, he married Catherine, daughter of George Moore of Clones. She died in 1874.

He was considered one of the finest and wittiest Parliamentary speakers of the age, and had the ability to utterly crush an opposing speaker. When John Thomas Ball, a future Lord Chancellor of Ireland, asked for the date of a certain event, Dowse replied gravely that he did not have the precise date, but thought it was about the time when Ball changed his political allegiance in the hope of getting into the House of Commons.