Hugh Edward Kennedy (11 July 1879 – 1 December 1936) was an Irish judge, politician and barrister who served as

Chief Justice of Ireland The chief justice of Ireland () is the president of the Supreme Court of Ireland. The chief justice is the highest judicial office and the most senior judge in the Republic of Ireland. The role includes several constitutional and administrativ ...

from 1924 to 1936, a judge of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

from 1924 to 1936 and

Attorney General of Ireland The attorney general of Ireland () is a constitutional officer who is the legal adviser to the Government and is therefore the chief law officer of the State. The attorney general is not a member of the Government but does participate in cabine ...

from 1922 to 1924. He served as a

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( ; ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish language, Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The official Engli ...

(TD) for the Dublin South constituency from 1923 to 1924. As a member of the Irish Free State Constitution Commission, he was also one of the constitutional architects of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

Early life and education

Kennedy was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in 1879. He was the son of the surgeon Hugh Boyle Kennedy and Mary Kate Kennedy (née Kennedy; not related), from

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

. His younger sister was the journalist Mary Olivia Kennedy. He studied for the examinations of the Royal University while a student at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

and

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 ...

, Dublin. He was called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

in 1902. He was appointed

King's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1920 and became a Bencher of King's Inn in 1922. He married Clare Murphy (died 1975) in Dublin in 1911. They had no children. She was the daughter of a successful

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Irish timber merchant, John Murphy.

Legal career

During 1920 and 1921, Kennedy was a senior legal adviser to the representatives of

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( ; , ) is the lower house and principal chamber of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann.Article 15.1.2° of the Constitution of Ireland reads: "The Oireachtas shall co ...

during the negotiations for the

Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ...

. He was highly regarded as a lawyer by

Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...

, who later regretted that Kennedy had not been part of the delegation sent to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1921, to negotiate the terms of the treaty. On 31 January 1922, Kennedy became the first

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

in the

Provisional Government of the Irish Free State The Provisional Government of Ireland () was the provisional government for the administration of Southern Ireland from 16 January 1922 to 5 December 1922. It was a transitional administration for the period between the ratification of the Anglo ...

. Later that year, the Provisional Government appointed him to the Irish Free State Constitution Commission to draft the

Constitution of the Irish Free State The Constitution of the Irish Free State () was adopted by Act of Dáil Éireann sitting as a constituent assembly on 25 October 1922. In accordance with Article 83 of the Constitution,

. The

was established on 6 December 1922. The functions of the Provisional Government were transferred to the

Executive Council of the Irish Free State The Executive Council () was the cabinet and executive branch of government of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Formally, executive power was vested in the Governor-General on behalf of the King. In practice, however, it was the Council that ...

. Kennedy was appointed Attorney General of the Irish Free State on 7 December 1922. In 1923, he was appointed to the Judiciary Commission by the Government of the Irish Free State, on a reference from the Government to establish a new system for the administration of justice by the Constitution of the Irish Free State. The Judiciary Commission was chaired by

Lord Glenavy Baron Glenavy, of Milltown, Dublin , Milltown in the County of Dublin, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 26 July 1921 for the noted Irish lawyer and Unionist politician James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy , Sir Ja ...

, who had also been the last

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...

. It drafted the

Courts of Justice Act 1924 The Courts of Justice Act 1924 () was an Act of the Oireachtas (No. 10 of 1924) that established a new system of courts for the Irish Free State (now the 26 county only Republic of Ireland). Among the new courts was the Supreme Court of the I ...

for a new court system, including a High Court and a

. It provided for the abolition, '' inter alia'', of the

Irish Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal in Ireland was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 as the final appellate court within Ireland, then under British rule. A l ...

and the Irish High Court of Justice. Most of the judges were not reappointed to the new courts. Kennedy personally oversaw the selection of the new judges and made impressive efforts to select them on merit alone. The results were not always happy: his diary, of which some extracts have been published, reveal the increasingly unhappy atmosphere in the Supreme Court itself, due to frequent clashes between Kennedy and his colleague Gerald Fitzgibbon, since the two men proved to be so different in temperament and political outlook that they found it almost impossible to work together harmoniously. In a similar vein, Kennedy's legal opinion and choice of words could raise eyebrows amongst legal colleagues and fury in the Executive Council, for example regarding the Kenmare incident. He was also a delegate of the Irish Free State to the Fourth Assembly of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

, between 3 and 29 September 1923.

Political career

He was elected to

on 27 October 1923, as a

Cumann na nGaedheal Cumann na nGaedheal (; ) was a political party in the Irish Free State, which formed the government from 1923 to 1932. It was named after the original Cumann na nGaedheal organisation which merged with the Dungannon Clubs and the National Co ...

TD at a by-election in the Dublin South constituency. He was the first person to be elected in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to Dáil Éireann. He resigned his seat in June 1924 when he was appointed Chief Justice of Ireland.

Judicial career

On 5 June 1924, he was appointed Chief Justice of Ireland, thereby becoming the first Chief Justice of the Irish Free State. He is also the youngest person appointed Chief Justice of Ireland. When he was appointed he was 44 years old. Although the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal had been abolished and replaced by the High Court and the Supreme Court respectively. Kennedy campaigned for the replacement of the wigs and gowns traditionally worn by judges and barristers, which he regarded as the trappings of an alien regime. He received little support from the judges or the government and the traditional dress was retained. He held the position of Chief Justice, until his death on 1 December 1936. In September 2015, a biography by Patrick Kennedy (no relation) was written on him called ''Hugh Kennedy: The Great But Neglected Chief Justice''.

References

External links

Article at University College Dublin archives department
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Hugh 1879 births 1936 deaths Alumni of the Royal University of Ireland Attorneys general of Ireland Chief justices of Ireland Cumann na nGaedheal TDs Irish King's Counsel Members of the 4th Dáil People associated with University College Dublin Politicians from County Dublin 20th-century King's Counsel Alumni of King's Inns Lawyers from County Dublin