Mr Justice Murray's appointment to the Supreme Court has been almost inevitable. It follows two stints as Attorney General, the first in the short-lived Fianna Fail government of February-December 1982, the second from 1987 to 1991, and eight years as a member of the Court of Justice of the European Communities.
Born in Limerick in 1943, he attended Crescent College, Rockwell College and then UCD and King's Inns before being called to the Bar in 1967. He became a senior counsel in 1981 and had a practice in commercial, civil and constitutional law. He is a Bencher of the King's Inns.
He has always had strong associations with Fianna Fail, and was linked with its leader in the 1980s, Mr Charles Haughey.
As a member of the Court of Justice of the European Communities he was president of its Second Chamber from 1992 to 1993 and of its Fourth Chamber from 1996 to 1997.
He also pursued a career as an academic lawyer, acting as guest lecturer in Georgetown Univeristy, Heidelberg and Florence and lecturing on European law in Princeton and Fordham Universities in the US, UCD and the European Competition Law Forum in Queen's University, Belfast.
He is married to Gabrielle Walsh, and they have two children, Catriona and Brian.