Hugh Geoghegan

Hugh Geoghegan I Clongowes 1950-1956

Hugh Geoghegan (b.1938), judge of the Supreme Court, is a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1950-6. The son of James Geoghegan, judge of the Supreme Court, he studied law at UCD, where he was auditor of the Law Society. He was called to the bar in 1962 and awarded the Society of the King’s Inns exhibition. As a junior counsel he practised on the midland circuit and in Dublin. He was called to the inner bar in 1977, and enjoyed a wide-ranging practice as a senior counsel in the superior courts. In 1984-92 he was also public-service arbitrator. He was appointed to the High Court in 1992 and promoted to the Supreme Court in 2000, where he remained until his retirement in 2010. In the course of his career, he served for different periods as a member of the Bar Council and of the Council of the King’s Inns of which he was elected a bencher in January 2000. Both before and after retirement he has been an active member of the Irish Legal History Society. He served as a member of the Clongowes board of governors in 1995-2002. He is married to Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan, daughter of the former chief justice, Thomas Finlay, who is herself a judge of the High Court.