Judge Yvonne Murphy is no stranger to the issue of child sex abuse. As a judge of the Circuit Court since April 1998, most of which she has served in the Circuit Criminal Court, she has presided over dozens, if not hundreds, of cases involving the abuse of children by relatives, teachers, clergy and others.
The Circuit Criminal Court hears all criminal cases except those involving rape and murder, so cases involving manslaughter, assault, robbery, drug-dealing, drink-driving and a host of other crimes have passed before her over the past six years.
She presided over the trial of members of the Garda Síochána accused of assaulting demonstrators during the 2002 Reclaim the Streets march, and over the trial of celebrity chef Conrad Gallagher for allegedly stealing art from the restaurant where he worked.
Since 2003 she has also sat on the Special Criminal Court.
Before her appointment as judge she was a junior counsel, married to Adrian Hardiman who was one of the best-known senior counsel in the State before his appointment direct from the bar to the Supreme Court bench. The couple have three sons, of whom one is a barrister.
Although she qualified as a barrister in 1971, Judge Murphy did not go straight into a career in law. She worked as a civil servant, air hostess and as a journalist between 1971 and 1984. She was an RTÉ presenter and edited Industrial Relations News. She was special adviser to former tánaiste, Labour leader Michael O'Leary, though she is now considered to be closer to the PDs than the Labour Party.
As a barrister she co-edited the Law Report which appears in The Irish Times on Mondays, and is the author of two books, Journalists and the Law and Insider Dealing in Ireland.
She was called to the bar in both England and Northern Ireland as well as in Ireland.
She was born in Co Donegal. She worked on the Northern circuit after qualifying as a barrister.