Seosamh Gráinséir

A woman whose car was rear-ended at traffic lights has been awarded €85,000 in general damages for pain and suffering caused by the accident. Stating that the extent of the injuries caused by the low speed crash were worsened as a result of existing degenerative changes in the woman’s spi

A 24-year-old man who followed an 81-year-old woman from a shop and stole her purse has lost an appeal against his sentence of three years with the final 18 months suspended. Finding that the sentencing judge had not erred in attaching weight to the fact that the offence was against an elderly and v

On 9 June 1976, Marie and Noel Murray were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. In September 1975, Garda Michael Reynolds was fatally shot in the head while chasing two men and a woman who had robbed the Bank of Ireland in Killester at gunpoint. The Murrays were arrested and charged w

A man who complained that the medical expert fees included in the bill of costs of the hospital and consultant in his medical negligence claim were so unusually high as to indicate a conflict of interest has lost his appeal to the Supreme Court. Although commenting that the fact that the fees were n

A man who deposited land certificates with Ulster Bank as security for his indebtedness has won an appeal against the finding that a vulture fund, which bought the loan asset and related security, had the benefit of a lien by deposit over his lands. The Supreme Court unanimously overturned the

Facebook has lost an appeal against the decision to refer a complaint about EU-US data transfer to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling. Emphasising that there were significant limitations on the issues which could be considered on such an appeal, the Chief Justice, Mr

In 1830, Sir Jonah Barrington became the only High Court judge to be dismissed from office by the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Jonah Barrington was a lawyer, judge and politician born at Knaptou, near Abbeyleix. The fourth child of impoverished landowner John Barrington, he was immediate

A woman has been granted a declaration that the Public Accounts Committee acted unlawfully in conducting a public hearing in a manner significantly outside its terms of reference, which also departed significantly from the terms of her invitation to attend the hearing. Delivering the Supreme Court's

The Supreme Court has overturned a decision of the High Court which declared that section 9(1)(b) of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 offended the constitutional right to remain silent. Also finding that the definitional elements of the crime under this section were clear, Mr

The Supreme Court has ruled that the arrest of a 26-year-old man, who had applied for residency on the basis of his father’s marriage to an EU national, was unlawful and that he was not detained in accordance with the law. The arrest was made prior to the refusal of his application, and Mr Jus

The Supreme Court has dismissed a "rare and exceptional" application from the Minister of Agriculture to review a judgment relating to negligent misstatement by government officials. The Minister submitted that, in upholding the High Court’s finding of liability for economic loss and an award

A hospital has lost an appeal against the finding that the two-year limitation period for issuing personal injury proceedings began when the plaintiff received a doctor’s medical report based on hospital records – not when he was informed in the weeks after his surgery that he had contra

John Toler, the first Earl of Norbury, earned his reputation as “the hanging judge” during his time as a particularly callous judge in Ireland in the late 18th and early 19th century. In a somewhat contradictory trait, Toler is often described as having those in his courtroom – inc

A man whose horse was seized by Galway County Council and destroyed as a result of unpaid fees incurred as a result of the same seizure has been granted an order setting aside the decision to dispose of the horse by way of destruction. Stating that the destruction was disproportionate, Mr Justice Ga

The Court of Appeal in Belfast has found that a five-month sentence imposed on a man convicted of sexually assaulting his two-year-old son was unduly lenient. The man served just two-and-a-half months of his sentence, and was not subject to a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).