Francis Dominick Murphy is an Irish judge and barrister who served as judge of the Irish High Court between 1982 and 1996 and was appointed to the

Supreme Court of Ireland , image = Coat of arms of Ireland.svg , imagesize = 120px , alt = , caption = Coat of Arms of Ireland , image2 = Four Courts, Dublin 2014-09-13.jpg , imagesize2 = , alt2 ...

in 1996, serving until 2002. He was the chair of the group which produced the Ferns Report in 2005.

Early life

Murphy became a

senior counsel The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel ( post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...

in 1969. In addition to practice, he taught as a professor at the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) 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 environment ...

. He served a term as chairman of the

Bar Council of Ireland The Bar of Ireland ( ga, Barra na hÉireann) is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Ba ...

. He became a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of the King's Inns in 1975.

Judicial career

High Court

He became a judge of the High Court in 1982. He was in charge of insolvency matters in the High Court during the 1990s and oversaw the insolvency process related to ''

The Irish Press ''The Irish Press'' ( Irish: ''Scéala Éireann'') was an Irish national daily newspaper published by Irish Press plc between 5 September 1931 and 25 May 1995. Foundation The paper's first issue was published on the eve of the 1931 All-Ireland ...

''. Murphy served on an advisory committee to the Law Reform Commission.

Supreme Court

Murphy was appointed to the

Supreme Court of Ireland , image = Coat of arms of Ireland.svg , imagesize = 120px , alt = , caption = Coat of Arms of Ireland , image2 = Four Courts, Dublin 2014-09-13.jpg , imagesize2 = , alt2 ...

in April 1996. He acted at various points as presiding judge in the Court of Criminal Appeal. In 2000 he conducted an inquiry into Donnchadh O'Buachalla, a judge of the District Court, over allegations of bias in overseeing the grant of a licence to operate the Jack White's Inn pub to

Catherine Nevin Catherine Nevin (; 1 October 1950 – 19 February 2018) was an Irish woman who was convicted in 2000 of murdering her husband Tom Nevin at Jack White's Inn, a pub owned by the couple in County Wicklow. The jury in her trial also found her gu ...

, who was a friend of O'Buachalla's. He found there while there were errors of judgement, there was no abuse of the legal process. In the Supreme Court's decision in ''Maguire v. Ardagh'', arising out of an

Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The two houses of the Oireachtas ( ga, Tithe an Oireachtais): **Dáil Éireann ...

inquiry into the death of John Carthy, he was one of two judges to dissent. The majority found that the Oireachtas could not inquire into a Garda operation. Murphy and the Chief Justice Ronan Keane held that the Oireachtas did have such power. He retired in October 2002. His position was filled by Brian McCracken.

Post-judicial career

Murphy was appointed to chair the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal in 2007. He chaired the Residential Institutions Review Committee until November 2019.

Ferns Report

In 2002 he was appointed to chair a three-person non-statutory commission to review historic allegations of sexual abuse in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns The Diocese of Ferns ( ga, Deoise Fhearna) is a Roman Catholic diocese in south-eastern Ireland. It is one of three suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin and is subject to the Archdiocese of Dublin. ...

. The need for the inquiry was prompted by a preliminary report by George Birmingham. The Ferns Report was published in 2005 and was strongly critical of the handling of allegations by the Catholic Church.

Revenue Powers Group

Charlie McCreevy Charles McCreevy (born 30 September 1949) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services from 2004 to 2010, Minister for Finance from 1997 to 2004, Minister for Tourism and Trade fr ...

appointed him to chair a Revenue Powers Group in 2003 to make recommendations on the powers of the Revenue Commissioners, particularly in relation to its investigative powers related to tax evasion. Its report was published in February 2004. It recommended that the Revenue Commissioners be given additional powers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Francis Living people Irish barristers Alumni of King's Inns High Court judges (Ireland) Judges of the Supreme Court of Ireland 20th-century Irish judges Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Irish judges Irish Senior Counsel