Opinion

Twenty years ago today, on Monday 15 March 1999, human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries. A bomb had been attached to the underneath of her car, and detonated when she pressed the brakes as she reached the bottom of the road from her home as she drove to her offic

Cathy Smith, a barrister practising in employment and company law and a committee member of the Irish Women Lawyers Association (IWLA), writes for Irish Legal News on International Women's Day 2019. The theme for IWD 2019 recognises that balance is not a women's issue – it is a business issue.

Having witnessed evictions in 1885 which she described as the “wholesale destruction of the little houses of the people”, Maud Gonne said this “changed the whole course” of her life, transforming her from a “carefree society girl into a woman of set purpose”, dete

Barrister Laura L. Keogh, author of Data Protection Compliance: A Guide to GDPR and Irish Data Protection Law, writes for Irish Legal News on the Public Services Card (PSC) - which contains an individual's name, signature, PPS number, card number and facial image - and its compatibility with the EU

Dr Tom Hickey, assistant professor at DCU School of Law and Government, reflects on the Supreme Court's recent judgment in Kerins v McGuinness & Ors [2019] IESC 11. Angela Kerins was bullied by some members of the Public Accounts Committee in the course of their questioning of her as chief execu

Dr Geraldine O'Hare, director of rehabilitation at the Probation Board for Northern Ireland, writes on the success of the Enhanced Combination Order pilot. For the past four years, the Probation Board for Northern Ireland has been piloting an intensive community sentence called ‘The Enhanced C

On 23 December 1881, 21-year-old Hannah Reynolds was sentenced at the Petty Sessions court to 28 days in Cork gaol for her work with the Ladies Land League. The men in the National Irish Land League were charged under the Coercion Acts, however the women of the Ladies Land League were not to be impr

Alison Cassidy, partner at BLM in Belfast, examines the latest personal injury guidelines for Northern Ireland. The Judicial Studies Board for Northern Ireland has published the fifth Edition of the ‘Green Book’ following the recommendations of a Committee chaired by Lord Justice Stephen

Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan of Richard Grogan & Associates writes on an anomaly as to whether wages claims should be brought in the Workplace Relations Commission and Labour Court or in the main Irish courts. The issue of where wages claims should be brought came to a head in a case

Jason O'Sullivan, principal and founder of J.O.S Solicitors, compares the Brexit timetable to the time taken to negotiate Greenland's exit from the EEC. The British Prime Minister Theresa May has returned to Brussels in her audacious bid to secure “alternatives” to the much maligned and

An Garda Síochána recruits outside the General Post Office 1954 Source: Alison Cassidy Family Collection (GNU Free Documentation License)

Toni Fitzgerald-Gunn, associate partner at Worthingtons Solicitors in Belfast, writes on the recent equal pay case involving supermarket Asda. Long before the Equal Pay (NI) Act 1970 and since, equal pay has been of broad and current interest. Once more, a light is being shone on the alleged dispari

Human rights lawyer Pat Finucane was murdered in his home in North Belfast on 12 February 1989. Pat was shot 14 times and his wife, Geraldine, was injured in the shooting, which was witnessed by their children as they hid underneath a table. The only person to be prosecuted in relation to the murder

Naomi Gaston, senior associate at Mills Selig, writes on the importance of security at major cryptocurrency exchanges. It has been reported that users of Canada’s largest Cryptocurrency Exchange, QuadrigaCX are unable to access most of their funds amounting to around C$180m (£105m) as th

Éamon de Valera was born in New York on 14 October 1882 to Catherine Coll and Juan Vivion de Valera. Juan Vivion died when Éamon was two-years-old, and so Éamon was taken home to live in his mother’s native Limerick with his uncle (TP Coogan, De Valera: Long Fellow, Long S