Redmond Barry: An Anglo-Irish Australian

(Paperback)

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Biography of Sir Redmond Barry-founding father of many of Melbourne's major institutions. Sir Redmond Barry was the pre-eminent figure in Melbourne of the middle years of last century. A Supreme Court judge for thirty years, he was the founding and sustaining force behind the University of Melbourne, the Supreme Court Library, the Public Library, the National Gallery and the Museum. As social and cultural benefactor, he stands alone. Paradox pervaded his life. While seen by many as a hidebound, even villainous judge, his trust in the rule of law underpinned, for example, an unusually sympathetic and active response to the Aboriginal people. Yet fear of losing social standing and his Irish family's esteem blinkered him to injustice on his own doorstep. The story of his unacknowledged relationship of thirty years with Louisa Barrow, and of their four illegitimate children, is perplexing and often painful in the telling. This important biography is long overdue.

Author Bio

Ann Galbally is Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts of Redmond Barry's university. She belongs to a legal family well known about the Supreme Court where Barry presided and whose renowned Library he instituted. Her many books include The Collections of the National Gallery of Victoria (1989) and The Art of John Peter Russell (1977). It was while investigating the sad fate of a large number of casts and decorative ceramic objects once held by the Museum that she first encountered their collector-Redmond Barry.