FOR ONLY the second time, the Government has nominated a senior counsel straight from the Bar on to the Supreme Court, when it named Donal O’Donnell SC as its choice to fill the seat left vacant by the appointment of Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns as president of the High Court.
He will be formally appointed by President Mary McAleese. Mr Justice Kearns remains an ex-officio member of the Supreme Court.
In 2000 Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman was appointed directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court bench.
Despite the rarity of appointing a senior counsel directly from the Bar, Mr O’Donnell’s nomination will not come as a surprise in legal circles, as his name has been mentioned since the vacancy arose, and he is known for his expertise, especially on constitutional matters.
There has scarcely been a high-profile case in which the State has been involved in recent years where he has not been involved, normally on the side of the State.
He appeared for the State in the frozen embryos case, where judgment was delivered by the Supreme Court last week, and had also appeared for the State in the unsuccessful High Court challenge to the part of the Charities Act dealing with the sale of “bogus” Mass cards.
He was in the High Court again the same week, again for the State, when it argued against a challenge to the differentiation between males and females in the law relating to underage sex, and also represented the Government in the case before the European Court of Human Rights where three Irish women are challenging the ban on abortion.
He also represented the State in the challenge to the Oireachtas inquiry into Judge Brian Curtin, and in the attempt of Ann Louise Gilligan and Katherine Zappone to have their Canadian marriage recognised. The latter is under appeal to the Supreme Court. What is noticeable about all these cases, and many more, is that the State has always won.
Mr O'Donnell also represented The Irish Timesin its successful appeal to the Supreme Court on its right to protect its sources, though the Supreme Court awarded costs against the paper because of the destruction of the documents at the centre of the case.
A native of Belfast, Mr O’Donnell was born in 1957 and studied law in UCD and the King’s Inns, as well as doing an LLM in the University of Virginia. He was called to the Bar of Ireland in 1982 and to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1989. He became a senior counsel in 1995 and is a Bencher of the King’s Inns.
He is a member of the Law Reform Commission, of the Commercial Court Users Group, of the Royal Irish Academy Committee on the Origins of the Irish Constitution, Chairman of the Editorial Committee Bar Review and a board member of Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross.
The Government also nominated Margaret Heneghan SC and Leonie Reynolds BL for appointment to the Circuit Court.
Born in 1968, Leonie Reynolds is a daughter of former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. She was educated in UCD and the King’s Inns and was called to the Bar in 1993. She practises mainly in the Midland Circuit and is a member of the Valuation Tribunal.
Ms Heneghan was born in 1959 and educated in the King’s Inns. She was called to the Bar in 1993 and to the Inner Bar in 2009. She is a member of the board of the Legal Aid Board.