{"id":622865,"date":"2026-08-06T02:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/622865\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T02:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:48:15","slug":"former-supreme-court-judge-hugh-oflaherty-dies-aged-88-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/622865\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Supreme Court judge Hugh O\u2019Flaherty dies aged 88 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/supreme-court\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/supreme-court\">Supreme Court<\/a> judge Hugh O\u2019Flaherty has died. He was 88.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a death notice, O\u2019Flaherty\u2019s family said he died peacefully on Wednesday at his home in his native Cahirciveen, Co <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/kerry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/kerry\">Kerry<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">O\u2019Flaherty was appointed directly to the Supreme Court in 1990, making him one of a small group of lawyers to join the highest court straight from the Bar. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He was one of the five judges who in 1992 decided the so-called X case. O\u2019Flaherty sided with the majority in the 4-1 decision to allow the appellant 14-year-old girl, who was pregnant and suicidal after being raped by a neighbour, to travel to Britain for an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/abortion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/abortion\/\">abortion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The landmark judgment established the right to an abortion in Ireland if the pregnant woman\u2019s life was at risk because of pregnancy, including the risk of suicide. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">O\u2019Flaherty studied at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/university-college-dublin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/university-college-dublin\">University College Dublin<\/a> and later King\u2019s Inn. He was called to the Bar in 1959 and was made a senior counsel in 1976.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He was for a period the youngest member of the Inner Bar. He often appeared in cases for the State.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">O\u2019Flaherty resigned from his position on the Supreme Court in 1999 amid controversy over his intervention in the case of Philip Sheedy, an architect who in 1997 pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">O\u2019Flaherty, who spent time between his home in Sandymount, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\">Dublin<\/a>, and Cahirciveen, was predeceased by his wife Kathleen. He is survived by his children Hugh, Catherine, Rory and Br\u00edd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The death notice states O\u2019Flaherty will be reposing at Daly Funeral Home, Cahirciveen, on Thursday from 6pm to 8pm. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A funeral Mass will take place at Daniel O\u2019Connell Memorial Church of the Holy Cross on Friday at 10am. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Another Mass will take place on Saturday at The Star of the Sea, Sandymount. Burial will take place at Kilternan Cemetery after the 10am service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Supreme Court judge Hugh O\u2019Flaherty has died. He was 88. In a death notice, O\u2019Flaherty\u2019s family said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[28810,9,10,52,18,13,14,6,19,17,957,11,12,15,16,5,2324,7,8,3275],"class_list":["post-622865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-abortion","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-supreme-court","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-university-college-dublin-ucd"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117046287122424152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622865","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=622865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}