Denis Riordan freed after week in jail

Limerick lecturer Mr Denis Riordan, has been released from jail, after spending a week in Dublin's Mountjoy for contempt of court…

Limerick lecturer Mr Denis Riordan, has been released from jail, after spending a week in Dublin's Mountjoy for contempt of court.

 Denis Riordan
Limerick lecturer Mr Denis Riordan

It is understood Mr Riordan has not yet purged his contempt by apologising or withdrawing his comments.

He was jailed on October 6th by the Supreme Court after he refused to withdraw his allegation that three Supreme Court judges were "corrupt".

Mr Riordan (55), of Clonconane, Redgate, Limerick, a father of three, has taken a number of cases, including an unsuccessful challenge to the proposed nomination of former Supreme Court judge Hugh O'Flaherty to the post of vice-president of the European Investment Bank.

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In June 2000, after the Supreme Court struck out as an abuse of court process motions brought by Mr Riordan seeking to reopen his challenge to the Divorce Act and the procedures for amending Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, Mr Riordan claimed the Supreme Court judges who had rejected his earlier challenges were biased and also alleged there was "absolute corruption".

Mr Riordan had an application before a three-judge Supreme Court - Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane; Mr Justice Murphy and Mr Justice Hardiman - for a stay on orders for costs made against him arising from his unsuccessful proceedings aimed at halting the 1998 referendum on the Belfast Agreement.

Mr Riordan received a bill for some £48,000 in costs arising from those proceedings in the High and Supreme Court. He also has to pay costs, as yet unspecified, of other unsuccessful proceedings taken by him.

In his affidavit grounding his application for a stay on the costs order, Mr Riordan made allegations of "endemic corruption" in the Supreme Court.