News

An Irish judge wrote to the Government in 1977 to plea for an intervention on behalf of Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess, as a "Christmas good deed". Judge Franke Roe's bid to have the leading Nazi released was revealed in newly-released papers from the 1988 State Archive.

Victim support organisations will benefit from €1.7 million in public funding this year, the Government has announced. The funding is being provided "alongside a programme of wider reform which the Government continues to advance in supporting victims of crime", it said.

A man has admitted stealing a dozen budgies from a woman's home before offering to help her look for the pets - while a couple of them sat on his shoulder. Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that Mohammed Rahman, 37, broke into accountant Anne Ferguson's flat with a hammer last April.

The son of a 93-year-old woman, who has been made a ward of court and is residing in a nursing home on the basis of medical advice, has had his application for her release into his care refused in the Supreme Court. The man has been engaged in a multiplicity of legal proceedings in relation to his m

KOD Lyons has announced the promotion of Matthew de Courcy and Colleen Gildernew to partners at the Dublin-based human rights and criminal defence firm.

The Courts Service of Ireland has promised "airport-style security" at the planned €40 million Hammond Lane family law complex following a security incident at Phoenix House yesterday. According to gardaí, a man pulled out a fake gun and hoax bomb during a family law hearing being heard

Barrister Peter Magill and solicitor Steven Keown have been sworn in as Northern Ireland's newest district judges, The Irish News reports. Mr Magill called to The Bar of Northern Ireland in 1978 and has worked in civil, family and criminal law as both a defence and prosecution lawyer.

Tully Rinckey Ireland has said a forthcoming legislative ban on zero hour contracts in Ireland, approved by the Oireachtas yesterday, will strengthen Irish employment law and close loopholes. The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill has cleared all stages in both houses and will now be present

President Michael D. Higgins has signed into law legislation providing for access to abortion on request up to 12 weeks. The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 comes six months after the referendum on the repeal of the Eighth Amendment and a year after its central provisions we

Aaron Moore, director at Belfast-based Cleaver Fulton Rankin Solicitors, has been recognised as Student of the Year 2018 at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators's (CIArb) annual awards.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has announced that its executive director, Deirdre Malone, will be leaving her post in February. Ms Malone, who previously worked as a barrister in private practice, has held the post since March 2014 but will now leave to take up a new opportunity. Deputy executi

Barrister-at-law students at the King's Inns have raised €2,845 for children in Direct Provision through their Christmas gift appeal.

Personal injury and road traffic accident specialists JMK Solicitors have presented cheques totalling £23,000 to their 2018 charity partners following a year-long staff fundraising programme. The first charity to benefit was Children’s Heartbeat Trust, who have been supporting families o

New drink-driving legislation introduced in 2016 is not being fully enforced in Northern Ireland because the PSNI do not have the necessary equipment, BBC News reports. The Road Traffic (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 lowered the drink-driving limit and allowed for police officers to conduct

This year marked the launch of our weekly Irish Legal Heritage feature, in which Seosamh Gráinséir looks at the people, events, laws and cases that have shaped Irish legal history. Here, we link back to all of this year's instalments. Irish Legal Heritage: The first Irish witch and her