Donal O'Donnell

Donal O'Donnell (born 1958) is a judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland since 2010.^[1]

He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and was educated at St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast, University College Dublin, King's Inns and the University of Virginia.

He was called to the Irish Bar in 1982, was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1989. He has practised in all Courts in Ireland, in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). He comes from a legal family: his father, The Rt. Hon Sir Turlough O'Donnell PC, was a member of the High Court of Northern Ireland and of the Court of Appeal of Northern Ireland between 1971 and 1990.^[2] His brother Turlough O'Donnell S.C. is former Chairman of the Bar Council of Ireland.^[3]

O'Donnell has been a member of the Law Reform Commission since 2005. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy Committee on the Origins of the Constitution. He became a Bencher of the King's Inns in 2009 and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2010. Like Adrian Hardiman, he received the rare honour of being appointed directly from the Bar to Ireland's highest court.^[4]

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