TRIBUTES HAVE been paid to a leading barrister, Seamus Mac-Kenna SC, who has died suddenly at the age of 81.
He had both defended and prosecuted for decades in many of the major criminal trials in the State and had still been practising at the time of his death on Wednesday.
Mr MacKenna led the State’s prosecution of the late Charlie Haughey in the 1970 Arms Trial.
In court yesterday morning, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said members of the judiciary and branches of the legal profession were very saddened to hear of Mr MacKenna’s death.
There would be other occasions when tributes will be paid to him, the judge said, but for the moment he asked all those present in court to stand for a minute’s silence.
At a session of the High Court in Ennis, Mr Justice Henry Abbott described him as “a role model and a hero”, and Mr Justice George Birmingham said Mr MacKenna “was a truly mighty barrister and a giant of his profession”.
A former chairman of the Bar Council, Mr MacKenna practised as a barrister for 59 years. He was called to the bar in 1951 and became a senior counsel in 1968.
His friend and colleague, Gerry Tynan SC, told the High Court in Ennis that Mr MacKenna “was one of the outstanding barristers of our time”. He said: “There is a tremor in my voice. We all loved Seamus. We will never get over his passing.”
Jack Fitzgerald SC, on behalf of the Bar Council, expressed sympathy to the MacKenna family and said his late colleague was “a giant of an advocate” and a person whom they had all looked up to for many years.