ProfileMr Justice John Blayney retired from the Supreme Court in 1996, but has remained in the public eye since then.
He headed a professional misconduct inquiry mounted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, in 1997, in the wake of the McCracken (Dunnes Payments) Tribunal.
He first came to prominence in public life in the 1950s when he sprinted 40 yards to score a try during an Ireland-Scotland rugby clash in Lansdowne Road.
Born in Dublin in 1926 as the son of a surgeon from Co Antrim, he was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, Glenstal Abbey, and UCD, where he earned a degree in classics.
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He was called to the bar in 1948 and became a senior counsel in 1974.
