Thomas Finlay

Clongowes 1935-1940 I Thomas Finlay

Thomas Finlay (b.1922), chief justice, is a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1935-40 and was school captain in his final year. He graduated with a degree in law and political science from University College Dublin, where he was auditor of the Law Society. He was called to the bar in 1944 and rapidly built up a large practice, especially on the midland circuit. He served as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin South-Central constituency in 1954-7. He was called to the Inner Bar in 1961. He was widely regarded as one of the ablest advocates in the courts and appeared in many celebrated cases and inquiries. His advocacy as counsel for the Irish government in Strasbourg in relation to alleged torturing of prisoners in Northern Ireland is particularly remembered. A respected colleague noted that he had the all too rare gifts of reducing the points at issue to the essential few and refraining from ‘that form of advocacy which allocates equal weight to all points, thus causing good ones to sink’. In 1972 he was appointed a judge of the High Court and became president of that court in 1974. Promoted chief justice in 1985, he presided over many important cases in the Supreme Court until his retirement in 1994. He remains an ex-officio member of the Council of State for life. His elder brother William Finlay (1921-2010), who attended Clongowes in 1935-8, was also a leading senior counsel. He held various senior offices and appointments, including dean of the law faculty at UCD, governor of the Bank of Ireland, chairman of the National Gallery and president of the Clongowes Union. Their father, also Tom Finlay (1893-1932), was a well-respected senior counsel and Cumann na nGaedheal TD, who attended Clongowes in 1905-11. The primary sporting interest of all three was fly-fishing in County Mayo.