pincenezglasses

Caption says "a few hours after nomination," implying this was taken in 1912

Good point about the caption! (At first, I wondered if Wilson's particularly gaunt appearance here would suggest it was taken four years later, in 1916. But checking historical newspapers confirmed that his 1912 nomination took place July 2, whereas his 1916 nomination took place in June.) We'll adjust the title and date in the source description and reload it to Flickr.

a quick Google flags up a series of NLI held docs from the 1880s where he seems to have acted as a Government solicitor ?

If the same man he was a resident magistrate.. RM..who took part in the Vandeleur evictions in 1888. Not well liked in Moyasta and beyond.

If that's our legal chap, it seems like that more than his waistcoat was stuffed (allegedly)
Daily Nation 1898

O f f i c i a l s f r o m t h e
V a n d e l e u r E v i c t i o n s

“Roche's appointment to the position
of Resident Magistrate over other, more senior
Removable Magistrates was questioned, as was
his ability to impartially enforce the Crimes Act,
given his association with the Loyal and Patriotic
Union, a fervently anti-Home Rule organization. '3
Roche's reputation for harsh sentencing and for
self-importance was likewise a cause for complaint
in the House of Commons." In this photograph he
wears a check-pattern yellow-hued suit, which he
wore frequently in the eviction photographs. He
was often recorded as he is seen here, sitting on a
low boundary wall, acting as "judge and jury', in the
summary sentencing of those who resisted eviction.
He was remembered later with his hat rakishly riding
forward on the bridge of his nose as he sentenced the
evicted tenants on the spot”

www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/vandeleur_evict...

Cecil Roche, Barrister 15 Herbert Street
(per Thoms 1884 & Slator 1894)
Emily was his mother. She died in 1902