Martin Oranmore Kirwan

A carte-de-visite portrait of Martin Oranmore Kirwan of the Royal Irish Fusiliers who was involved in the ‘Dublin Castle scandal’ of 1884. The photograph shows him some 15 years earlier, dressed as the Duchesse de Chartres in an 1869 production of a comic opera titled ‘Follies of a Night.’

In 1884 Irish Nationalists alleged that homosexual orgies were taking place among the staff at Dublin Castle, the seat of the government’s administration in Ireland, specifically naming two high-ranking officials in print. The two men were forced to sue the newspaper in order to defend their reputations, although one of them, James Ellis French, Director of the Royal Irish Constabulary, quickly backed down on account of the ample evidence proving his sexual congress with young police officers. The other man, Gustavus Charles Cornwall, the Secretary of the General Post Office – known as ‘The Duchess’ to his friends – went to court but when his suit against the newspaper failed, he too found himself facing charges of buggery and conspiracy to corrupt young men.

One of the men charged as a co-conspirator was Captain Kirwan. The trial lasted five days, at the end of which Cornwall was discharged since the jury could not reach an agreement. Kirwan was acquitted due to a lack of evidence against him but resigned his commission anyway. He died in 1904. French eventually received two years’ hard labour.

Photographed by Gustave Dautez of Gibraltar.