{"id":480423,"date":"2026-06-03T05:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/480423\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T05:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:29:19","slug":"ballybofey-woman-becomes-donegals-newest-solicitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/480423\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballybofey woman becomes Donegal&#8217;s newest solicitor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Ballybofey woman has been introduced as Donegal\u2019s newest practising solicitor.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Ceejay Byrne was formally introduced at a sitting of Letterkenny District Court by experienced solicitor Mr Frank Dorrian.<\/p>\n<p>Working with McElhinney &amp; Associates Solicitors in Stranorlar, Ms Byrne is the daughter of Peter and Miranda Byrne from Donegal Road, Ballybofey.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Dorrian told the court that the principal partner of McElhinney &amp; Associates, Ms Jolene McElhinney, had served as an apprentice in his own firm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMs Byrne is a young lady who had a glittering academic career,\u201d Mr Dorrian said, adding that the new solicitor attended St Columba\u2019s College, Stranorlar before going to Queen\u2019s University in Belfast.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cShe has been working in McElhinney &amp; Associates since her student days and she commenced her traineeship in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI, and my colleagues, wish her the best during the course of her career. To qualify as a solicitor has become progressively more difficult since I and my colleagues drifted through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On behalf of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, Sergeant Jim Collins wished Ms Byrne a \u201clong and happy career\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/boxing\/picture-special-boxing-ace-roisin-hegarty-honoured-at-mayors-reception-636403\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Picture special: Boxing ace Roisin Hegarty honoured at Mayor&#039;s reception\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/picture-special-boxing-ace-roisin-hegarty-honoured-at-mayor-039-s-reception.png\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Picture special: Boxing ace Roisin Hegarty honoured at Mayor's reception\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/lifestyle\/donegals-hugh-carr-to-front-new-festival-series-636395\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Donegal&#039;s Hugh Carr to front new festival series\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donegal-039-s-hugh-carr-to-front-new-festival-series.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Donegal's Hugh Carr to front new festival series\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Judge Emile Daly congratulated Ms Byrne and welcomed her and her family to the court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish you well and you are in good company,\u201d Judge Daly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ms Byrne thanked those who had commented and said it was her hope for a long career.<\/p>\n<p>She thanked Judge Daly for taking time out of her busy list and expressed gratitude to Ms McElhinney and all the staff at McElhinney &amp; Associates for their guidance and encouragement, as well as that of her family, especially her parents, and friends for their support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am looking forward to many years practising in Donegal,\u201d Ms Byrne said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, she graduated from Queen\u2019s with an Honours Bachelor of Law in July 2020.<\/p>\n<p>During her time at university, Ms Byrne travelled to Cape Town, South Africa with Projects Abroad and participated in their Law and Human Rights Placement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During this time, she also worked on her own legal cases and organised free legal clinics, in addition to working on social justice projects and attending juvenile detention centres.<\/p>\n<p>She has worked as a legal secretary at McElhinney &amp; Associates Solicitors while completing her Law Society FE1 exams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Ballybofey woman has been introduced as Donegal\u2019s newest practising solicitor. Ms Ceejay Byrne was formally introduced at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-480423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}