Dermot Patrick Kinlen (24 April 1930 – 18 July 2007) was an Irish judge and barrister who served as a Judge of the High Court from 1993 to 2002. He was best known for being the first inspector of prisons, after many years of there being none, in Ireland. In his reports he was very critical of the way the prison service was being run and in particular of the lack of any focus on rehabilitation. He was appointed a High Court judge in 1993, having been nominated by the government of

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 ...

Albert Reynolds Albert Martin Reynolds (3 November 1932 – 21 August 2014) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1992 to 1994. He held various cabinet positions between 1979 and 1991, including Ministe ...

, particularly on the advice of

Tánaiste The Tánaiste ( , ) is the second-ranking member of the government of Ireland and the holder of its second-most senior office. It is the equivalent of the deputy prime minister in other parliamentary systems. The Tánaiste is appointed by the P ...

Dick Spring Richard Martin Spring (born 29 August 1950) is an Irish former Labour Party (Ireland), Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste from 1982 to 1987, 1992 to November 1994, and December 1994 to 1997, Leader of the Labour Party (Ireland), L ...

of the Labour Party, in spite of his links to

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

. He practiced as a barrister on the South Western Circuit. He had a charismatic personality, vast wide-ranging interests and was much admired. He was involved in the setting up of diplomatic relations between the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. From 1977 onwards, he was a frequent visitor to China. The

University of Limerick University of Limerick (UL) () is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972, as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in Septemb ...

awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Law. In 1997,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

bestowed the Order of St. Gregory on Kinlen. Kinlen's maternal grandfather, Thomas O'Donnell, had been an MP for West Kerry for 18 years, at the beginning of the 20th century. Kinlen died at his home in

Fenit Fenit () is a small village in County Kerry, Ireland, located on north side of Tralee Bay about west of Tralee town, just south of the Shannon Estuary. It is also a civil parish. The bay is enclosed from the Atlantic by the Maharee spit whi ...

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

, on 18 July 2007 and was buried in Dublin on 21 July 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinlen, Dermot 1930 births 2007 deaths High Court judges (Ireland) Irish barristers Alumni of King's Inns Knights Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great