Brian Cregan (born 1961) is an Irish judge who has served as a Judge of the High Court since April 2014 and is the current Chairperson of the IBRC commission of investigation.

Early career

Cregan attended

Gonzaga College Gonzaga College SJ is a voluntary Catholic boys' secondary school in Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1950, Gonzaga College is under the trusteeship of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), one of five Jesuit secondary schools in Ir ...

. He attended

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

and the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns () is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments. The Benchers of King's Inns aw ...

. He became a barrister in 1990 and a senior counsel in 2004. His practice focused on

competition law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

and

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

. He has represented

Seán Quinn John Ignatius Quinn, commonly known as Seán Quinn (born 5 December 1947), is an Irish businessman and conglomerateur. In 2008 he was the richest person in the Republic of Ireland, but in 2012 he was declared bankrupt. The ''Sunday Times Rich ...

in the High Court in disputes against

Anglo Irish Bank Anglo Irish Bank was an Republic of Ireland, Irish bank headquartered in Dublin from 1964 to 2011. It began to wind down after nationalisation in 2009. In July 2011 Anglo Irish merged with the Irish Nationwide Building Society, forming a new co ...

Judicial career

High Court

He was appointed to the High Court in April 2014. Cregan presided over cases in the Commercial Court. He has heard cases involving

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

law, procurement law, defamation, insolvency law, and consumer law. He adjudicated a dispute between

Rory McIlroy Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a Northern Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He is a former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking and has spent over 100 weeks in that position du ...

and his management company Horizon Sports Management in 2015. He was responsible for introducing a three strikes policy for Irish

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

UPC Ireland Virgin Media Ireland is Liberty Global's telecommunications operation in Ireland. It is the largest digital cable television provider within the country. the company offers broadband internet, digital television digital (VoIP) telephony and ...

for piracy of copyrighted works by its customers.

IBRC Commission

Cregan was appointed as chairperson of the IBRC commission of investigation in July 2015, replacing Daniel O'Keeffe. The commission's purpose is to investigate the sale of the company Siteserv by the

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was the name given to the entity formed in 2011 by the court-mandated merger of the state-owned banking institutions Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society. Following a High Court o ...

Denis O'Brien Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958) is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel. He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for several years. His bus ...

. He delivered the sixth interim report of the Commission in June 2019.

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2017 to 2020 and from 2022 to 2024, as Tánaiste from 2020 to 2022, and as leader of Fine Gael from 2017 to 2024. A Teachta Dála, ...

announced that Cregan's reporting timeframe would continue to 31 March 2020. As of December 2018, the commission had considered 102 statements and dealt with over 500,000 pages of documents. The final extension for the commission to complete its investigation was for June 2020. The commission published its final report in May 2023. His role on the commission was full time, meaning that he was not available to hear cases in the High Court during this period.

Other work

In 2013, Cregan published, ''Parnell: A Novel'', a novelised account of the life of

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1875 to 1891, Leader of the Home Rule Leag ...

, which took ten years to research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cregan, Brian Living people High Court judges (Ireland) 1961 births Irish barristers Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Alumni of King's Inns People educated at Gonzaga College 21st-century Irish novelists