MRS JUSTICE SUSAN DENHAM was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and at 47, the youngest judge when appointed. She was educated at Trinity College Dublin and Columbia University and called to the Bar in 1971. She was called to the Inner Bar in 1987. She was appointed to the High Court in 1991. Mrs Justice Denham is married to a paediatrician, Dr Brian Denham. They have four children.
MR JUSTICE RONAN KEANE's appointed to the Supreme Court in March of this year. He is a former judge of the High Court. Mr Justice Keane was educated at UCD and the King's Inns and called to the Bar in 1954. He was called to the Inner Bar in 1970 and appointed judge of the High Court in 1979. He presided over the inquiry into the Stardust disaster and was president of the Law Reform Commission. He is the author of a number of legal texts and of numerous papers for legal journals. He has three children.
JUDGE KEVIN O'HIGGINS, was appointed to the Circuit Court in 1986. He has been associated with some of the most famous trials over the past 25 years, including the Arms Trial. He was counsel for the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Kerry Babies tribunal. He was educated at UCD and the King's Inns. He was active in Fine Gael and also in the Dublin Samaritans. He is married with four children.
JUDGE CATHERINE McGUINNESS is a judge of the Circuit Court and a former member of the Seanad. She Is chairwoman of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. She was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the King's Inns. She was called to the Bar in 1977 and the Inner Bar in 1989. Prior to becoming a barrister she was a writer, teacher and a parliamentary officer for the Labour Party. She is a member of the Council of State, and the General Synod of the Church of Ireland. She is married to a journalist, Mr Proinsias MacAonghusa, and has three children.
JUDGE PETER SMITHWICK is President of the District Court. He was appointed amid some controversy, when Fine Gael raised the issue of Judge Smithwick having been a former director of elections for Fianna Fail in Kilkenny. He was appointed president after three months on the bench, in 1990, but had held a temporary post on the District Court bench for the previous two years. He is a member of the Kilkenny brewing family. He had previously worked as a solicitor in Inistioge, Co Kilkenny. He was educated at UCD and admitted as a solicitor in 1958.
MR JUSTICE ANTHONY HEDERMAN was appointed chairman of the Law Reform Commission in October 1992. He was educated at UCD and the King's Inns and called to the Bar in 1944. He was called to the Inner Bar in 1965, having been Judge Advocate General from 1959 until 1965. He was appointed Attorney General in July 1977 and served until June 1981, when he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court. He retired from the Supreme Court in July 1993. He dissented in the Supreme Court decision in the X case that the threat of suicide could be grounds for abortion.
MR KEN MURPHY is director general of the Law Society. Mr Murphy is a partner in the Dublin firm of solicitors, A & L Goodbody. He was 35 when appointed to his position in the Law Society, the youngest ever director general. He has been a member since 1983. He ran Goodbody's Brussels office. He is married with two children.
MR JAMES NUGENT is a senior counsel and chairman of the Bar Council. He was educated at UCD and the King's Inns and called to the Bar in 1969. He is married with four children. He was chairman of the board of Temple Street Children's Hospital.
MR KEN WRIGHT established his own management consultancy in 1982 and has served on over 300 job creation initiatives on behalf of State agencies on a consultancy basis. He has served at a senior level with Apple Computers, Philips Electric, Guinness and Alcan. His areas of expertise include management organisation and development and performance issues.
MR JOHN ROGERS SC is a former Attorney General. He was called to the Inner Bar in December 1984 before being appointed Attorney General to the Labour/Fine Gael Government led by Dr Garret FitzGerald. He was the first Labour Attorney General in the State's history. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the King's Inns and called to the Bar in 1973. He met Mr Dick Spring while at Trinity and has remained a friend and adviser.
ROISIN McDERMOTT is the chairwoman of Women's Aid and a full time director of the organisation. She was an official with the ESB trade union, the ESBOA, for 15 years. After leaving school at the Dominican Convent, Eccles Street, Dublin, Ms McDermott lived in Spain for eight years. She has been involved in Women's Aid since 1980. She has been critical of Government policy on violence against women, especially the lack of legal aid available to women victims of violence.
MR KEVIN DUFFY, assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, was educated at Bolton Street College of Technology and as an apprentice bricklayer with G. & T. Crampton. He joined the Bricklayers' Union aged 14, the day before he went to work. He worked with various companies until 1973 when he became assistant general secretary of the Bricklayers' Union. In 1978 he became general secretary. He is a member of the Irish Society of Labour Law. He is married with three children.
The Departmental representatives are Mr Caoimhin O hUiginn of the Department of Justice; Mr Colm Breslin of the Department of Finance, and Mr Richard Barrett of the Attorney General's Office.