Former president of the High Court Joseph Finnegan dies aged 81

Former president of the High Court Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan has died aged 81. He died in the Beacon Hospital in Dublin on Saturday after a short illness.

Mr Finnegan served as a judge of the High Court from 1999-2006 and was president of the High Court from 2001 until 2006 when he was appointed to the Supreme Court.

A popular figure in legal circles, Mr Finnegan was known as a keen motorcyclist. Following his retirement in 2012, he toured Spain and several other European countries by motorbike.

Mr Finnegan was educated at Synge Street CBS and St Mary’s College Dundalk. He studied at University College Dublin from where he obtained a bachelor of civil law and bachelor of law. He qualified as a solicitor in 1966.

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Mr Finnegan was assistant secretary of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland from 1968-1973 and was called to the bar in 1978. He was appointed to the bench of the High Court in 1999.

He was a member of the Board of the Courts Service from 2001-2006, and sat on the finance committee and remuneration committee and was chairman of its audit committee. Mr Finnegan had a keen interest in legal education and was a member of the education committee of the Honorable Society of the King’s Inns since 2000.

Mr Finnegan was also a bencher of the Honorable Society of King’s Inns and a bencher of the Honorable Society of Middle Temple.

Details of his funeral have yet to be announced.

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