RIP Justice Henchy

Irish Times Article by Fiona Gartland

This man deserves the very greatest of respect. Certainly more deserving than many of the subjects of these threads in the past.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0406/breaking68.htm

Irish Times Article by Fiona Gartland wrote:

Justice Séamus Henchy dies aged 91


Former Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Séamus Henchy has died aged 91.

The Judge, whose many rulings helped shape constitutional law in Ireland, passed away yesterday and is survived by his wife Averil.

Born in December 1917 in Clare, Henchy studied at University College Galway and University College Dublin before being called to the Bar in 1943. He was Professor of Roman Law, Jurisprudence, and Legal History in UCD from 1948 to 1962 before being appointed a High Court judge.

Ten years later he was called to the Supreme Court where he served until 1988. He was also chairman of the Mental Illness Commission in the 1960s and served five years as first chairman of the Independent Radio and Television Commission from 1988.

He was considered a leading light in the Supreme Court and is well known for his dissenting judgment in the Norris case in 1983. The majority of the Court upheld the laws criminalising homosexuality, but, in an eloquent and sensitive judgment, Henchy came down on the side of humanity.

He presided over the Arms Trial in 1970 and his inclusion in the judgment in the McGee case in 1973 ended the ban on the import of contraceptives when the court found the law was repugnant to the Constitution.

And in the Crotty Case, in 1987, Henchy's inclusion in the Supreme Court's majority judgment ensured that Irish people were allowed to vote on the Single European Act and all other EU treaties that followed.

Henchy's removal to St Patrick's Church, Monkstown will take place tomorrow and funeral mass will on Wednesday morning at 10am, with burial at Shanganagh Cemetery.

Stood against the anti-homosexuality laws, stood against the ban on contraceptives, made the Government put all EU treaties before the Irish people in a referendum.

This man shaped Irish society for the better and is a great loss to Ireland.

Rest in peace sir.

Darragh29

That's ironic. He died aged 91. I've a mate who has a 91 year old grandparent who is in hospital with pneumonia and he's been on a trolley in A & E for the last 3 days & nights. May the Judge rest in peace...

Dennis the Stone

R.I.P. came in contact with a lot of his judgments back in Law, a great man

tony1kenobi

Darragh29 wrote: »

That's ironic. He died aged 91. I've a mate who has a 91 year old grandparent who is in hospital with pneumonia and he's been on a trolley in A & E for the last 3 days & nights. May the Judge rest in peace...

I don't get the irony there. What is the connection?

mobius42

Am I the only person who saw the headline on the Times website and thought it said Seamus Heaney had died?:o

King of Kings

Deleted User wrote: »

made the Government put all EU treaties before the Irish people in a referendum.

actually Ray Crotty took the case and deserves all the kudos.

Kernel

Bit of a liberal leftie tbh.

CreepingDeath

Deleted User wrote: »

stood against the ban on contraceptives,

If there was still a ban on contraceptives we wouldn't have needed the mass immigration. Am on the fence about that decision !

Nodin

CreepingDeath wrote: »

If there was still a ban on contraceptives we wouldn't have needed the mass immigration. Am on the fence about that decision !

Sort of forgetting about our long tradition of mass emmigration there, aren't ye.....

Darragh29

Darragh29 wrote: »

That's ironic. He died aged 91. I've a mate who has a 91 year old grandparent who is in hospital with pneumonia and he's been on a trolley in A & E for the last 3 days & nights. May the Judge rest in peace...

to quote ed byrne, the ironic thing here is that you don't know what ironic means.

kraggy

Kernel wrote: »

Bit of a liberal leftie tbh.

What's liberal about letting 2 people who love each other have a relationship in peace?

What's liberal about letting people buy condoms?

kraggy

kraggy wrote: »

What's liberal about letting 2 people who love each other have a relationship in peace?

What's liberal about letting people buy condoms?

Have to agree here. Kernel clearly never read the judgment. Justice Henchy spoke about the privacy of marriage and the State having no right to "go into the marital bed" to enforce a law. That is a conservative position (regulation of State interference and personal liberty) and the original judgment only extended the right to import contraceptives to married couples.

As for Crotty, he may have taken the case but lets give the learned Judge some credit. His judgment is wonderful in that case and his impassioned minority verdict in Norris even more so.

Eoin

tony1kenobi wrote: »

I don't get the irony there. What is the connection?

Alanis Morissette has a lot to answer for.