Matthias McDonnell Bodkin[1] (8 October 1850 – 7 June 1933) was an Irish nationalist politician and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Anti-Parnellite representative for North Roscommon, 1892–95, a noted author, journalist and newspaper editor, barrister (King's Counsel (K.C.
[citation needed] Bodkin's appointment as a County Court judge in 1907 was controversial among Nationalists who thought that offices should not be accepted from the British regime.
The appointment was subjected to an unsuccessful legal challenge on the ground that Bodkin had retired from the Bar at the time; when asked in Parliament what had induced the (illiterate) complainant to lodge his affidavit against Bodkin, the then Chief Secretary for Ireland, Augustine Birrell, replied, apparently with complete truth: ‘A pint of porter’.
[4] Maume (1999, p. 92) says Bodkin had ‘dubious legal qualifications’, but there is no doubt that he had wide experience as a barrister and on his own account had defended some twenty people on capital charges.
[5] While a judge in 1921, Bodkin published accounts of abuses by the Black and Tans in County Clare, which received wide publicity.
[citation needed] Bodkin was a prolific author, in a wide range of genres, including history, novels (contemporary and historical), plays, and political campaigning texts.
Bodkin's autobiography Recollections of an Irish Judge is a valuable historical source, particularly on the Parnellite split, although being published when he was only 64 it does not cover the last 20 years of his life.
They had several children including Matthew Jr. (born 1896), who became a Jesuit priest and in his turn a well-known author mainly of religious works, and Thomas Bodkin, who was the Director of the National Gallery of Ireland and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.