Augustine Birrell

British statesman and writer, born near Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK. He studied at Cambridge, was called to the bar in 1875, and was Liberal MP for West Fife (1889–1900) and Bristol North (1906–18). He became president of the board of education (1905–7), and chief secretary for Ireland (1907–16), resigning after the Easter Rising of 1916. He was the author of Obiter Dicta (1884–87), volumes of essays whose charm inspired the verb to birrell meaning to comment on life gently and allusively, spicing good nature with irony.

Augustine Birrell, KC (January 19, 1850 - November 20, 1933), was an English author and politician.

He was the son of a Nonconformist minister, was born near Liverpool.

It was as a witty, stylish literary critic that he first became known, with his volume of essays entitled Obiter Dicta (1884).

A second series of Obiter Dicta appeared in 1887.

At the general election of 1900, he preferred to contest the Manchester North East seat rather than retain his seat in Fife, but was defeated. He had been included in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet, and as President of the Board of Education he was responsible for the education bill which was the chief government measure in their first session. But the prolonged controversy over the bill, and its withdrawal in the autumn owing to the refusal of the government to accept modifications made by the House of Lords in the denominational interest, made his retention of that office impossible, and he was transferred (January 1907) to the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland, which he subsequently retained when H.

In the session of 1907, he introduced an Irish Councils bill, a sort of half-way house to Home Rule; On the other hand his scheme for a reconstituted Irish Roman Catholic university was very favorably received, and its acceptance in 1908 did much to restore his reputation for statesmanship as well as the introduction of a compulsory tenant land purchase scheme, the Birrell (Irish) Land Act (1909).

He continued in office for nine years in all, resigning in 1916 after the Easter Uprising.

The majority of his literary work was published before 1906, but he returned to literature with a further volume of essays and book reviews, More Obiter Dicta (1920) and Etc Caetera.

The critic Francis Birrell (1889–1935) was his son.

Preceded by: Marquess of Londonderry	President of the Board of Education 1905-1907	Succeeded by: Reginald McKenna
Preceded by: James Bryce	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1907–1916	Succeeded by: Henry Edward Duke