Death Notice

Judge Seamus Hughes, a sitting District Court judge in Counties Longford and Westmeath, has passed away at the age of 69. A former Fianna Fáil TD and county councillor, Judge Hughes was due to retire from the bench on his 70th birthday next month.

Former solicitor Jim Fitzpatrick, best known as the long-standing proprietor of The Irish News, has passed away at the age of 93. Born in Belfast in 1929, Mr Fitzpatrick was admitted as a solicitor in 1954 and began to practise civil law in the firm established by his father.

Newtownards solicitor Charles E. Stewart, director at Stewarts Solicitors, has passed away following a long illness. Mr Stewart qualified as a solicitor in 1972. Less than two years later, he took over the legal practice run by his father and founded by his great-grandfather in 1902.

Tributes have been paid to Northern Ireland media law expert Paul McDonnell after he passed away on Thursday. Mr McDonnell, formerly a partner at McKinty and Wright (now part of DAC Beachcroft) and a consultant at Carson McDowell, had been an in-house lawyer at the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life

The eminent legal philosopher Joseph Raz passed away on Monday at the age of 83. "Joseph Raz was born in 1939 in Mandate Palestine. Encouraged in his youthful intellectual pursuits by his father, an electrician, he grew up in a house with no books except his own. Raz studied law at the Hebrew Univer

Former High Court and European judge Mr Justice John D. Cooke has passed away at the age of 78. The late judge served on the Court of First Instance of the European Communities from 1996 until 2008, and then on the Irish High Court from 2008 until his retirement in December 2013.

James Kingston, barrister and legal adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has passed away. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and LSE, Mr Kingston qualified as a barrister in 1992 and joined the DFA in 1995. He became legal adviser and a member of the DFA's management board in 2009.

Tributes have been paid to the late barrister and Fianna Fáil politician Michael O'Kennedy, who passed away on Friday at the age of 86. Over the course of a decades-long career in politics, Mr O'Kennedy served as a government minister, a European Commissioner, a TD and a Senator.

Respected town agent Alan Bashford has passed away, the Law Society of Northern Ireland has announced. Mr Bashford spent his entire legal career at C&H Jefferson Solicitors, joining the firm in 1953 and retiring in 2003.

The Law Society of Northern Ireland has paid tribute to Heather Semple, who passed away yesterday morning after 32 years' service as the Society's librarian and latterly as the head of its library and information service. Mrs Semple was diagnosed with "a very serious medical condition" shortly befor

Distinguished barrister Frank Callanan SC has passed away at the age of 65. Mr Callanan died at home following a medical emergency on Sunday morning, just two days after the death of his father, retired solicitor and photojournalist Fionnbar Callanan.

Belfast solicitor Gerard Duffy, one of the founding partners of Elliott Duffy Garrett (EDG), has passed away. Mr Duffy, who was admitted to the roll of solicitors in 1952 and retired in 1993, died on Friday at the age of 93.

Tributes have been paid to the "pioneering" lawyer-turned-politician Mervyn Taylor, who passed away yesterday at the age of 89. Mr Taylor, a solicitor who went on to become a Labour TD, served as minister for equality and law reform under two coalition governments between 1993 to 1997.

Judge Denis McLoughlin, a District Court judge assigned to Cavan and Monaghan, has passed away suddenly at the age of 62. The president of the District Court, Judge Paul Kelly, led tributes yesterday afternoon after the unexpected news of the judge's death earlier in the day.

Judge John Curran QC, who retired from Northern Ireland's County Court bench in 2005, passed away yesterday. A barrister, he took silk in 1974 and was appointed as a County Court judge in February 1981, serving for 24 years until his retirement.