Noel Howard: The Cork divorce trial that gripped the Victorian world

A landmark Victorian courtroom battle saw Lady Louisa Mount Cashell challenge convention and secure an extraordinary legal victory

Lady Louisa Mount Cashell gave a very impressive performance while cross-examined 'with a ruthless brutality'.

On June 28, 1876, Lady Louisa Mount Cashell, youngest daughter of Stephen Moore, 3rd Earl Mount Cashell of Moore Park, Kilworth, Co. Cork faced her greatest ordeal. 

Louisa was supported in court by her aged father, then the longest serving peer in the House of Lords; both had to be affected by the fact that a wife and mother lay dying at home in her palatial mansion in Kilworth.