THE DEATH has taken place at the age of 91 of the former Supreme Court judge Séamus Henchy.
The judge, whose many rulings helped shape constitutional law in Ireland, died on Sunday. He is survived by his wife Averil.
Born in December 1917 in Clare, Mr Justice Henchy studied at University College Galway and University College Dublin before being called to the Bar in 1943. He was professor of Roman law, jurisprudence and legal history in UCD from 1948 to 1962 before being appointed to the High Court.
Ten years later he was called to the Supreme Court where he served until 1988. He was chairman of the Mental Illness Commission in the 1960s and served five years as first chairman of the Independent Radio and Television Commission, from 1988.
Mr Justice Henchy was considered a leading light in the Supreme Court. He was well-known for his dissenting judgment in the David Norris case in 1983, in which the majority of the court upheld the laws criminalising homosexuality.
He presided over the Arms Trial in 1970 and he was among the judges in the Mary McGee case in 1973 who ruled that married people were entitled to obtain contraceptives for personal use.
The Supreme Court’s judgment in that case ended the ban on the import of contraceptives.
In the Raymond Crotty case in 1987, he participated in the majority judgment that ensured Irish people were allowed to vote on the Single European Act and all other EU treaties that followed.
Gerard Hogan SC said yesterday that Mr Justice Henchy was one of the greatest judges Ireland had produced. “He was a very modest man who never courted publicity. If he had been in the UK or the US he would be feted now as one of the best they ever produced and there would be law schools named after him.”
He said he would doubt if there was any judge in the English-speaking world post second World War who was the equal of Mr Justice Henchy in his judicial prose.
“His dissent in the Norris case is probably the greatest judgment ever delivered in an Irish court,” he said. “It was an elegant, sensitive and compelling analysis.”
Mr Hogan said it was hard to fault Mr Justice Henchy as a judge. “I can’t think of any judgment of his disapproved of by the modern Supreme Court; his standing as a judge is quite unique.”
Prof Gerry Whyte, associate professor at Trinity Law School, said Mr Justice Henchy was an important member of the Supreme Court.
“In the 1960s, the Irish Supreme Court took a more prominent role in Irish society partly because of its dealings with the Constitution; he was a significant player during that time in the formative history of the courts,” he said.
Mr Justice Henchy’s removal to St Patrick’s Church, Monkstown, Co Dublin, will take place this evening at 5pm. The funeral Mass will follow tomorrow at 10am, with burial at Shanganagh Cemetery.
