Former Supreme Court judge Hugh O’Flaherty has died aged 88.
The Kerry native was appointed directly to the Supreme Court by President Patrick Hillery in 1990 aged 52, making him one of a small number of lawyers to join the country’s highest court straight from the Bar.
In 1992, Mr O’Flaherty was one of five judges to decide on the so-called X case, when the Supreme Court allowed a 14-year old girl who was pregnant and suicidal after being raped by a neighbour to travel to Britain for an abortion.
The case brought the issue of abortion back into the headlines and prompted a referendum in November 1992, which estabslished the right to travel and the right to information about abortion.
The X case is regarded as one of Ireland’s most significant legal decisions.
Mr O’Flaherty resigned from the Supreme Court in 1999 following the publication of the Hamilton report into controversy around Mr O’Flaherty’s intervention into the case of Phillip Sheedy, an architect who in 1997 pleaded guilty to death by dangerous driving.
Despite his resignation, Mr. O’Flaherty insisted he did nothing wrong.
The following year he withdrew his name as the Government’s nominee as a vice president of the European Investment Bank amid political outcry.
Friends of Mr O’Flaherty say one of his biggest personal satisfactions prior to becoming a judge was when he represented relatives of the victims of the Stardust tragedy in their personal compensation case.
The UCD graduate often split his time between Sandymount and his native Cahersiveeen and was regarded as a keen follower of the Kerry football team.
He was predeceased by his wife Kathleen and was survived by his sons Hugh and Rory and daughters Catherine and Bríd.
His funeral will take place in Cahersiveen on Friday before a further mass and burial in Dublin on Saturday.