{"id":60499,"date":"2025-09-12T23:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/60499\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T23:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:15:11","slug":"inspirational-human-rights-lawyer-conor-gearty-dies-aged-67-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/60499\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Inspirational\u2019 human rights lawyer Conor Gearty dies aged 67 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A leading human rights academic, barrister and author, Prof Conor Gearty<\/a>, has died aged 67. <\/p>\n

From Co Longford, Dr Gearty was professor of human rights law in the faculty of law at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). <\/p>\n

His sudden death on Thursday was greeted with shock and sadness in legal circles in Ireland and the UK. <\/p>\n

President Michael D Higgins<\/a> led tributes, saying: \u201cConor Gearty was an inspirational human rights figure for young scholars and activists in the field. He had earned the deep respect of so many of his fellow theorists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough his work as a researcher and teacher as professor of human rights law at the London School of Economics, and as a practitioner through Matrix Chambers, he was a leading figure in the advocacy of civil liberties and human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his engagement with the public through the LSE\u2019s Institute of Public Affairs, journals, newspapers and online, he further worked to extend knowledge of these important matters to the public at large and to provide people with the information necessary to advocate for their rights and to understand issues of public policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a very good friend, a fine scholar and a principled activist. He will be deeply missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission<\/a> said it had learned of Dr Gearty\u2019s death with \u201cprofound sadness\u201d, and extended deepest condolences to his family, colleagues, students \u201cand all who were inspired by his work\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cConor was a towering figure in the field of human rights,\u201d the commission said. \u201cThrough his scholarship, legal practice and public engagement, he strove to ensure that principles of dignity, equality and justice, were not just ideals but active realities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Gearty\u2019s \u201cfearless voice and advocacy will have a lasting legacy in the global fight for human rights, equality, justice and dignity\u201d, it said. <\/p>\n

Dr Gearty\u2019s academic research and published works focused primarily on civil liberties, terrorism and human rights. A qualified barrister, he also appeared in human rights cases in the UK House of Lords, Court of Appeal and High Court.<\/p>\n

He was appointed an honorary Kings Counsel in 2021 in recognition of his work in his various fields.<\/p>\n

Originally from Abbeylara, Co Longford, Dr Gearty was educated at Castleknock College and University College Dublin, from where he graduated in law before moving to England to study at Wolfson College, Cambridge, where he achieved a master\u2019s degree, followed by a PhD.<\/p>\n

In 1983, he became a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In 1990, he moved to the school of law at King\u2019s College London, where he was appointed a professor in 1995. <\/p>\n

He was a founder member of Matrix Chambers in London. In a statement, the chambers described him as \u201ca giant of the global legal community\u201d whose loss was \u201cimmeasurable\u201d.<\/p>\n

A visiting professor at Boston University, the University of Richmond and the University of New South Wales, he was also awarded honorary degrees from Brunel and Roehampton universities, UCD and Sacred Heart University in the United States.<\/p>\n

An accomplished orator, he twice won The Irish Times debating competition during the 1970s.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Book review: Homeland Insecurity \u2013 a superb studyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

His most recent book, Homeland Insecurity: The Rise and Rise of Global Anti-terrorism Law, was published in May 2024. His other books include British Torture, Then and Now: The Role of the Judges (2020); On Fantasy Island: Britain, Europe, and Human Rights (2016); and Freedom Under Thatcher: Civil Liberties in Modern Britain (1990). <\/p>\n

Dr Gearty is survived by his wife, Prof Aoife Nolan, and his four children, Eliza, Owen, \u00c9ile and Fiadh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leading human rights academic, barrister and author, Prof Conor Gearty, has died aged 67. From Co Longford,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,43236,11,12,15,16,1874,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-60499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-irish-human-rights-and-equality-commission","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-michael-d-higgins","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}