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Sligo native Judge Bernard Brennan, who retired from the District Court bench 1999, has passed away. Judge Brennan, a qualified solicitor, spent two decades as a judge, serving for most of that period in district 4, covering Co Mayo and Co Leitrim.

Belfast human rights lawyer Ciaran O'Hare discusses his work in the area of judicial review and public law in Northern Ireland in the latest instalment of the Activist Lawyer podcast. In the new episode, Mr O'Hare discusses some of his most important legal cases, from a challenge concerning the leng

William Shawcross has been appointed as the new independent reviewer of the controversial Prevent counter-terrorism programme. Prevent aims to safeguard vulnerable people from being drawn into terrorism, and forms one of the four strands of the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTE

New sentencing guidelines for drugs offences have been introduced in a bid to tackle ethnic and gender disparities. The Sentencing Council has published research showing that the odds of a black offender receiving an immediate custodial sentence for a drug offence are 40 per cent higher than the odd

An entire police station is under investigation after officers and civilian staff used their building for an illegal late-night party. One video circulating on social media shows the officers and staff at the major police station in Paris dancing the Macarena at 3am without face masks.

The High Court has struck out a plaintiff’s action for damages arising from the sale of a property for failing to comply with a court order. The court said that the plaintiff simply ignored the court order and that it was proportionate in all the circumstances to dismiss the action. Applying t

Eugene F Collins has announced the appointment of Kathi Ó Riain as the new head of its property and construction team. Ms Ó Riain, a partner since 2017, will be responsible for further strengthening the property services the firm offers to its clients.

Lawyers have called for a statutory public inquiry into mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland following the publication of new research. The Northern Ireland Executive yesterday promised a "full independent investigation" after publishing historical research it commissioned from a team of academ

Legislation modernising investment limited partnerships (ILPs) in Ireland will be fully commenced by March, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has announced. The Investment Limited Partnership (Amendment) Act 2020, approved by the Oireachtas last month, enhances the transparency applied to Ireland's f

Our regular round-up of deals involving Irish law firms. Submit your deals to newsdesk@irishlegal.com. Fieldfisher Ireland has advised Simply Blue Energy, a Cork-headquartered early-stage developer of transformative and sustainable marine projects, on a milestone agreement with Shell New Energies, t

Benjamin Bestgen examines the impact of "respectability" in criminal trials. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. Tropes like the “Gentleman Thief” pick up on the allure of the white-collar criminal: a person who appears respectable, educated, even charming. A worldly, cleve

Lawyers for a man alleging he was waterboarded by the British Army in 1972 have identified a second plaintiff who has now issued another civil action in the High Court. Belfast firm Harte Coyle Collins is now representing both men, whose claims both involve the army base at Blackmountain Barracks in

Juries should be cut from 12 members to seven in order to clear the Covid-19 backlog of criminal cases in England and Wales, Labour has said. The call follows a joint report from the police, prosecutors, prisons and probation inspectorates, which said the "unprecedented and very serious" backlog in

Facial recognition technology amplifies racist policing and threatens the right to protest, campaigners have warned as they launch a global campaign against its use. The new Ban the Scan campaign, launched by Amnesty International, will begin in New York City before expanding to focus on the use of

Rape victims from an ethnic minority background are significantly less likely to see their case lead to prosecutions or convictions, according to a new research paper. In a newly-published report, psychologists at Middlesex University call on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to improve its guidan