biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1850–1933)
|
| biography:
| 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. |
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