John F. Larkin (born 1964), is the former

Attorney General for Northern Ireland The Attorney General for Northern Ireland is the chief legal adviser to the Northern Ireland Executive for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Attorney General for Northern Irel ...

. He was the first person to hold the office separately since its functions were assumed by the

Attorney General for England and Wales His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales is the chief legal adviser to the sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales as well as the highest ranking amongst the law officers of the Crown. The attorney gener ...

in 1972. He was the first holder of the office not to be a politician sitting in either the

Parliament of Northern Ireland The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...

, at Stormont, or the

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Early life

Larkin was born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

and educated at St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School and

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, where he read law. He was subsequently called to the

Bar of Northern Ireland The Bar of Northern Ireland is the professional association of barristers for Northern Ireland, with over 600 members. It is based in the Bar Library, beside the Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast, Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast, together with ...

and practised as a barrister.

Career

In the early 1980s. he was involved in politics as a member of the

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. Following the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it was the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland ...

, but ceased to be active as his legal career took off. In 1989, at the age of 25, Larkin was appointed as

Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology The Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology is a professorship at Trinity College Dublin. Name and history The chair is named after Richard Tuohill Reid (1823–83), an Irish lawyer and academic who was Perry Professor in Juris ...

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

. He returned to Northern Ireland in the 1990s to work at the Northern Ireland Bar, specialising in administrative law, civil liberties and human rights, competition and constitutional law, defamation and judicial review. On 20 November 2013, he recommended eliminating prosecutions, inquests or inquiries into events which preceded the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

of 1998. Certain politicians and policemen accused him of attempting to violate

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

. On 25 November, he received a letter from

Jim Allister James Hugh Allister (born 2 April 1953) is a Northern Irish unionist politician and barrister who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Antrim since the 2024 general election. He founded the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) in 20 ...

regarding

Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its '' sine qua non'' the preservation of Northern Ireland's pl ...

allegations against the

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to which he replied three days later saying that it would not be appropriate for him to comment on that issue. On 10 June 2014, he attended hearing on the so-called ''on-the-run'' letters.

Views

Larkin is opposed to abortion, commenting in 2008 on BBC Radio Ulster that abortion was the same as shooting a baby in the head. During his later tenure as Attorney-General, Larkin was accused of using his office to further his personal opposition to abortion, with a series of actions including urging the Northern Ireland Assemby's justice committee to examine the legality of Belfast's Marie Stopes Clinic. Committee members said his intervention was inappropriate and amounted to an attempt to 'take control' of an Assembly inquiry. Larkin also opposed a Northern Ireland woman's attempt to legally challenge the province's abortion laws, claiming she did not have the standing to do so. The woman later won her case. Larkin attempted to intervene in a European Court of Human Rights case taken by two Austrian lesbians. Larkin argued that countries should be able to 'opt out' of laws to support adoption by gay couples. The UK Government distanced itself from Larkin, saying it had not been consulted. After his tenure as Attorney-General, Larkin acted as senior counsel for the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child in their challenge to Northern Ireland's 2021 abortion regulations. The challenge failed.

Resignation

John Larkin stood down on 30th June 2020 as Attorney General and was replaced by Brenda King, First

Legislative Counsel A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of ...

in the Executive Office.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larkin, John 1963 births Living people Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Attorneys general for Northern Ireland Academics of Trinity College Dublin People educated at St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast Lawyers from Belfast Northern Ireland King's Counsel