Justice Séamus Henchy dies aged 91

Former Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Séamus Henchy has died aged 91.

The Judge, whose many rulings helped shape constitutional law in Ireland, passed away yesterday and is survived by his wife Averil.

Born in December 1917 in Clare, Henchy studied at University College Galway and University College Dublin before being called to the Bar in 1943. He was Professor of Roman Law, Jurisprudence, and Legal History in UCD from 1948 to 1962 before being appointed a High Court judge.

Ten years later he was called to the Supreme Court where he served until 1988. He was also chairman of the Mental Illness Commission in the 1960s and served five years as first chairman of the Independent Radio and Television Commission from 1988.

He was considered a leading light in the Supreme Court and is well known for his dissenting judgment in the Norris case in 1983. The majority of the Court upheld the laws criminalising homosexuality, but, in an eloquent and sensitive judgment, Henchy came down on the side of humanity.

He presided over the Arms Trial in 1970 and his inclusion in the judgment in the McGee case in 1973 ended the ban on the import of contraceptives when the court found the law was repugnant to the Constitution.

And in the Crotty Case, in 1987, Henchy's inclusion in the Supreme Court's majority judgment ensured that Irish people were allowed to vote on the Single European Act and all other EU treaties that followed.

Henchy's removal to St Patrick's Church, Monkstown will take place tomorrow and funeral mass will on Wednesday morning at 10am, with burial at Shanganagh Cemetery.