John Henry North

Instead he focused on the becoming a candidate for the Dublin University seat, anticipating the departure of the sitting member, W. C. Plunket who was expected soon to be made Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.

In February 1820 he took part in a public debate against Daniel O’Connell about whether the Society did, as its principles and objects asserted, "afford the same facilities for education for every denomination of Christians".

[4] In February 1823, North was the barrister called to defend a group of loyalists who were alleged to have thrown a bottle at the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Marquess Wellesley, in a Dublin theatre.

At the same time stood as a candidate in Drogheda where he was elected, defeating Daniel O'Connell's son, Maurice, and relying largely on the support of the non-resident freemen of the borough.

On the eve of the poll for Dublin University he was appointed Judge of the Admiralty in Ireland, following the removal from office of the previous incumbent, Sir Jonah Barrington.

He died while the Reform Bill was still going through the House of Commons, on 29 September 1831 and is buried in St Mary's Church, Harrow-on-the-Hill where a memorial (attributed to Humphrey Hopper)[8] bears the inscription:

Honoured, Revered, Admired, Beloved, Deplored, By the Irish Bar, the Senate and his country, He sunk beneath the efforts of a mind too great for His earthly frame, In opposing the Revolutionary Invasion of the Religion and Constitution of England, On the 29th of September, 1831, in the 44th year of his age."