A former Circuit Court judge has failed to overturn his conviction for the attempted rape and sexual abuse of six young men while he was working as a teacher three decades ago. Gerard O’Brien, 61, of Old School House, Slievenamon Road, Thurles, Co Tipperary, was convicted by a Central Criminal
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The Irish Women Lawyers Association is to host its AGM next week, where the guest speaker will be award winning author Sally Hayden. This is a great chance to catch up with fellow women in law, expand your knowledge, and find out more about how IWLA can support your practice.
Four justice reforms – including a plan to expand the judiciary – remain uncommenced more than a year after being signed into law, the Courts Service's Annual Report for 2025 shows. The report details a system under sustained pressure, with rising civil litigation, growing serious crime
The Children’s Rights Alliance has welcomed preliminary findings by the European Commission that Meta may have breached EU online safety rules by failing to adequately protect children on Facebook and Instagram. The findings form part of a two-year investigation into Meta’s compliance wi
The Law Society of Ireland’s Centre for Justice and Law Reform Summer School has brought together leading international figures in law, diplomacy, security and politics to examine whether the rules-based international order can survive an age of disruption. This year’s Summer School, ent
The website 4chan has again mocked UK regulator Ofcom after it renewed demands for payment of its £520,000 Online Safety Act fine, with the platform’s lawyer responding by sending another AI-generated hamster. US lawyer Preston Byrne, who represents 4chan, said on X that Ofcom had s
Jersey is set to legalise assisted dying after its new law received royal assent. The draft Assisted Dying (Jersey) Law, approved by the States Assembly earlier this year, was granted royal assent yesterday and will come into force once it is registered by the Royal Court in the coming days.
The Metropolitan Police has agreed to pay Graham Linehan, the creator of Father Ted, £25,000 after apologising for his arrest over gender-critical posts on social media. Scotland Yard acknowledged “shortcomings in the investigation, the arrest and the imposition of bail conditions”
Criticism of a football referee’s impartiality can fall within the protection of freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. In de Carvalho Marques and Others v Portugal, the court considered six applications
Amnesty International has called for police action in response to the display of an effigy of a mosque on top of a bonfire in Moygashel, Co. Tyrone. The display and the recent proliferation of racist banners elsewhere "send a chilling message to migrant families and minority ethnic communities at a
The PSNI and the Ministry of Defence have settled a civil case brought by eight survivors of a loyalist gun attack on a Co Down pub in 1992, in a deal understood to be worth several million pounds. The case arose from the UVF attack on the Thierafurth Inn in Kilcoo during a darts tournament, in whic
Our weekly round-up of human rights stories from around the world. Turkey intensifies crackdown on public life in run-up to Nato summit in Ankara
Dozens of solicitors have resigned from Ireland’s criminal legal aid panel after the Government introduced a flat-fee payment system for district court cases. The Courts Service said 55 solicitors had left the panel since justice minister Jim O’Callaghan’s new €520 fixed fee f
Addleshaw Goddard and Simmons & Simmons have reported double-digit revenue growth, pushing average pay for their full equity partners above the £1 million mark. Addleshaw Goddard, the UK’s eleventh highest-grossing law firm, increased annual revenue by 17 per cent to £644m. Pro
United Airlines has been forced to defend its claim that a “window seat” does not necessarily need to have a window after a judge rejected its attempt to dismiss a passenger lawsuit. The airline argued that the term referred only to a seat’s position next to the cabin wall, rather

