The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Ireland, Hon. Richard Davies
Ireland, Hon. Richard Davies, was born in Galway in 1816, and was called to the Irish bar in 1838. He emigrated to Victoria in 1852, and was called to the local bar in the following year. His brilliant and gratuitous defence of the Ballarat rioters brought him enormous popularity, and he was elected to represent Castlemaine in the Assembly in 1857, and was appointed Solicitor-General in March 1858 in the O'Shanassy Ministry, retiring with his colleagues in Oct. 1859, when he was returned for Maryborough. He entered the Legislative Council in 1859, and joined the Heales Administration as Attorney-General in Nov. 1860, but resigned in July 1861, four months before the fall of the Ministry. When the O'Shanassy Ministry, which succeeded, came in in Nov. 1861, Mr. Ireland again became Attorney-General, retiring with his colleagues in June 1863. Mr. Ireland did not again hold office, and died in Melbourne in 1875.