John O'Byrne (24 April 1884 – 14 January 1954) was an Irish judge and barrister who served as a Judge of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

from 1940 to 1954, a Judge of the High Court from 1926 to 1940 and

Attorney General of Ireland The attorney general of Ireland () is a constitutional officer who is the legal adviser to the Government and is therefore the chief law officer of the State. The attorney general is not a member of the Government but does participate in cabine ...

from 1924 to 1926.

Early life

He was born on 24 April 1884, the fourth son of Patrick O'Byrne and Mary O'Byrne (née Tallon), of Seskin,

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

. He was educated at the Patrician Monastery,

Tullow Tullow (; ), formerly Tullowphelim (), is a market town in County Carlow, Ireland. It is located on the River Slaney where the N81 road intersects with the R725. , the population was 5,138. Tullowphelim is the name of both a townland and civ ...

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county located in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region of Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Carlow is the List of Irish counties by area, second smallest and t ...

, and studied Moral and Mental Science at the Royal University, where he graduated in 1907 in First Place with First Class Honours. He was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1908. He joined the

Irish Land Commission The Irish Land Commission was created by the British crown in 1843 to "inquire into the occupation of the land in Ireland. The office of the commission was in Dublin Castle, and the records were, on its conclusion, deposited in the records tower ...

, where he acquired an intimate knowledge of the system of

real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, refers to parcels of land and any associated structures which are the property of a person. For a structure (also called an Land i ...

and

land tenure In Common law#History, common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land "owned" by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement betw ...

in Ireland. Subsequently, he studied at

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns () is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments. The Benchers of King's Inns aw ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, and was called to the

Irish Bar The Bar of Ireland () is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Bar of Ireland, commonly c ...

in 1911, where he practised mainly in real property. He stood as a pro-Treaty

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

candidate at the 1922 general election for the

Wexford Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...

constituency but was not elected. In 1922, he was appointed by the

Provisional Government of the Irish Free State The Provisional Government of Ireland () was the provisional government for the administration of Southern Ireland from 16 January 1922 to 5 December 1922. It was a transitional administration for the period between the ratification of the Anglo ...

to the Irish Free State Constitution Commission to draft the Constitution of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

, commonly known as the Irish Free State Constitution Commission. It prepared a draft Constitution. He was thus one of the constitutional architects of the Irish Free State. In 1923, he was appointed to the Judiciary Commission by the Government of the Irish Free State, on a reference from the Government to establish a new system for the administration of justice in accordance with the Constitution of the Irish Free State. The Judiciary Commission was chaired by the last

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

(who had also been the last

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...

). It drafted legislation for a new system of courts, including a High Court and a

, and provided for the abolition of the

Irish Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal in Ireland was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 as the final appellate court within Ireland, then under British rule. A l ...

. He was appointed

King's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1924, becoming the last member of counsel in the Irish Free State to be appointed, thereafter counsel were appointed as Senior Counsel. He was also a delegate of the Irish Free State to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

in the same year.

Legal career

On 7 June 1924, he was appointed the second Attorney-General of the Irish Free State when Hugh Kennedy was appointed

Chief Justice of Ireland The chief justice of Ireland () is the president of the Supreme Court of Ireland. The chief justice is the highest judicial office and the most senior judge in the Republic of Ireland. The role includes several constitutional and administrativ ...

Judicial career

On 9 January 1926, he was appointed a High Court judge, upon which he served until he was elevated to the bench of the

Supreme Court of Ireland The Supreme Court of Ireland () is the highest judicial authority in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a court of final appeal and exercises, in conjunction with the Court of Appeal (Ireland), Court of Appeal and the High Court (Ireland), Hig ...

in 1940. He was also Chairman of the Irish Legal Terms Advisory Committee from 14 May 1948 to 13 May 1953.

Reputation on the bench

Another High Court judge, Kenneth Deale writing extrajudicially in "Beyond Any Reasonable Doubt?", a collection of essays on celebrated Irish

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

trials, offers some interesting insights into O'Byrne's strengths and weaknesses as a judge. Deale praises him as a sound and experienced lawyer, conscientious, principled and level-headed. However, he believed that O'Byrne had one serious flaw- he was excessively strong-minded and having made up his mind was most reluctant to change it. This in Deale's view was a serious fault in a judge especially in criminal trials, where Deale found it hard to believe that a jury would not be greatly influenced by the summing up of so formidable and strong-minded a judge. In particular, Deale strongly criticised his conduct of the trial of Thomas Kelly, tried in 1936 for the murder of Patrick Henry. In Deale's view, O'Byrne's summing-up was designed to convince the jury that the accused was guilty (Kelly, after an unprecedented three trials, was found guilty, but the Government, which seems to have had some doubts about his guilt, reprieved him from the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

Personal life

He married Margaret (Marjorie) McGuire in 1924; and they had five children. They lived at Stonehurst,

Killiney Killiney () is an affluent coastal suburb on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. It lies south of Dalkey, east and northeast of Ballybrack and Sallynoggin and north of Shankill, in the local government area of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown within ...

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

. He died in office on 14 January 1954. His widow brought a celebrated test case arguing that judges could not be required to pay

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

as this breached the Constitutional guarantee that their incomes can not be reduced. The Supreme Court decided by a 3–2 majority that notwithstanding the guarantee, judges are liable to pay income tax.''O'Byrne v Minister for Finance''

959 Year 959 ( CMLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * April - May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly tribute. A Hungarian army, led by Apor, invades Mace ...

I.R. 1. One of his sons was

Paddy O'Byrne Paddy O'Byrne (8 December 1929 – 4 December 2013) was an Irish people, Irish radio broadcaster and actor who became one of the best-known radio personalities in South Africa. Early life O'Byrne was born in Killiney, a suburb of Dublin, Repu ...

who became one of the best known

radio presenter A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

s in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obyrne, John 1884 births 1954 deaths Irish King's Counsel Alumni of the Royal University of Ireland Lawyers from County Wicklow Attorneys general of Ireland Judges of the Supreme Court of Ireland High Court judges (Ireland) Alumni of King's Inns 20th-century King's Counsel 20th-century Irish judges