Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/MacDermot, Hugh Hyacinth O'Rorke
MACDERMOT, HUGH HYACINTH O'RORKE, The MacDermot (1834–1904), attorney-general for Ireland, born on 1 July 1834 at Coolavin, co. Sligo, was eldest of the twelve children of Charles Joseph MacDermot, titular 'Prince of Coolavin,' by his wife Arabella O'Rorke, the last lineal descendant of the Breffny family. The family, which was Roman catholic, lost most of their lands in the civil wars in Ireland in the seventeenth century, and they lived for generations in great retirement at Coolavin, where the head, despite his narrow means, maintained much personal state (cf. Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland, i. 219).
A brother, John MacDermot (known locally from his swarthy complexion as 'The Black Prince'), became a canon of Achonry and was a notable rider to hounds.
Educated at home by his father until 27 Aug. 1852, at eighteen he entered the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth, as a candidate for the priesthood. He was 'head of his year' there in every subject. He remained at Maynooth until 1856, when he abandoned the ecclesiastical career, and obtaining a burse on the nomination of the bishops, entered in November the catholic university in St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, of which Newman was rector. There during 1857 and 1858 he gained various distinctions in classics and English {Calendars, 1856-9).
On leaving the university in 1859 MacDermot read law in Dublin and London, and won a studentship of 50^. a year given by the Council of Legal Education in London. Admitted a student of the King's Arms, Dublin, in Michaelmas term 1857, he was called in Michaelmas term 1862, and was summoned to the inner bar in Feb. 1877. He was elected a bencher on 11 Jan. 1884. MacDermot went the Connaught circuit, on which he became the chief junior. He later acquired leading Dublin business. Though no great orator, he was a first-rate lawyer, and understood the management of witnesses and juries.
At the celebrated Galway election petition in 1872 before Judge Keogh, Macdermot held the junior brief for Colonel Nolan, the sitting member. He was a senior counsel in the action for libel brought against Lord Clanricarde by Frank Joyce, his former agent, in 1883; and appeared for A. M. Sullivan [q. v.] in the prosecution for sedition in 1880, and for Mr. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt in an attempt to quash on certiorari Blunt's conviction by a crimes court in 1887. After taking silk MacDermot held a leading brief in nearly every important case from the West of Ireland, especially in those of a political complexion.
On the death of his father on 5 Dec. 1873 MacDermot became 'The MacDermot' and titular 'Prince of Coolavin.' A strong liberal in politics, he was made in May 1885 solicitor-general for Ireland in Gladstone's second administration. He retired with the ministry in the following July, but held the office again from February to August 1886 in Gladstone's third administration. When Gladstone became prime minister for the fourth time in 1892 MacDermot was made attorney- general and was sworn of the privy comicil in Ireland. He remained attorney-general till 1895. MacDermot never sat in the House of Commons. He failed in his only attempt to obtain a seat in 1802, when he contested West Derbyshire against Mr. Victor Cavendish, afterwards ninth duke of Devonshire. He said laughingly that the voters mistook him for 'the Great Macdermott,' the music-hall singer [see Macdermott, Gilbert Hastings, Suppl. II].
MacDermot died on 6 February 1904 at 10 FitzWilliam Place, Dublin, and was buried in the catholic church, Monasteraden, co. Sligo. He married twice: (1) on 1 Dec. 1861, Mary (d. 1871), daughter of Edward Howley, D.L., of Belleek Castle, by whom he had three sons; (2) in 1872, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry Blake, J. P., by whom he had five sons.
[Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1904, p. 308; Thorn's Directory for 1904; Irish Times and Independent, 8 Feb. 1904; The College Register of the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth (27 Aug. 1852 and 7 Feb. 1853).]