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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Edward Carson
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(1854–1935, kt 1900, baron 1921)
Irish lawyer and politician, notable both for his brilliance and his ruthlessness. His reputation in England was made by his devastating cross-examination of Oscar *Wilde in 1895, yet Wilde had been a fellow undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin. And his orthodox political career (solicitor general 1900–6, attorney general 1915) did not prevent his raising in 1913 a large force of insurrectionary *Ulster Volunteers and smuggling in illegal arms as part of his campaign against *Home Rule. It was almost entirely due to his efforts that the Home Rule bill of 1914 excluded Ulster and that the *six counties remained in 1921 part of the United Kingdom.
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