Mary Finlay Geoghegan

Her mother was called to the Bar in 1946, though never practised.

Her maternal uncle John Blayney was also a Supreme Court judge.

She was educated at Sacred Heart Convent, Monkstown, County Dublin and obtained a double first BA in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics from University College Dublin.

At UCD, she played for the university hockey team and in diving was a Leinster Junior champion.

Mary Finlay Geoghegan (Finlay; born 1949) is a retired Irish judge and lawyer.

She was elected the first female auditor of the UCD L&H, serving between 1970 and 1971.

She took over running the society at the age of 21 and described herself as being "an awfully logical person", on account of her mathematical background.

Future Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman served on her L&H committee.

The topic of her inaugural address was the "Just Society" and featured contributions from Mary Robinson, Declan Costello and Brian Walsh.

She attended the Law Society of Ireland and later studied for a postgraduate course in EEC studies at the College of Europe, Bruges following qualification and on a scholarship.

She was admitted as a solicitor in 1973.

She practised at McCann, FitzGerald, Roche and Dudley, where she was a partner.

Finlay was appointed chair of the National Consumer Advisory Council in 1976.

Finlay was subsequently called to the bar in 1980.

She devilled for Peter Kelly.

She joined the Law Reform Commission in October 1980 as a part-time member to serve a five-year term.

Her father was the Chief Justice of Ireland between 1985 and 1994.

Her paternal grandfather Thomas Finlay was a Cumann na nGaedheal politician.

As a junior counsel practice included commercial, injunctive and insolvency matters, including representing the Irish government in proceedings related to the 1985 collapse of the Insurance Corporation of Ireland.

She was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Middle Temple in May 1987.

She became a Senior Counsel in 1988.

She was called to Bar of Northern Ireland in 1989.

She was also called to the New South Wales Bar Association in 1992.

She continued practising in commercial matters, including employment and tax law disputes.

She also appeared in immigration and personal injuries cases.

She represented Paul McGuinness and Windmill Lane Productions in the judicial review of a decision of the Independent Radio and Television Commission to revoke a licence to establish TV3.

She was a convenor of the Constitution Review Group from 1995.

She is currently a board member of the National Children's Research Centre and a governor of the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook.

Finlay Geoghegan acted as an independent legal adviser to the State on matters of EC law in 1996.

She is a bencher at the King's Inns since 1996 and Middle Temple since 2012.

She acted for the Attorney General of Ireland in a reference made by President Mary Robinson under Article 26 of the Constitution of Ireland to the Supreme Court regarding the Employment Equality Bill of 1997.

She appeared for RTÉ in constitutional cases in the Supreme Court regarding the need for equal time in referendums coverage.

She has been a board member of the Dublin Gas Board, the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and the Temple Street Children's University Hospital, where she was chair between 2001 and 2004.

She was appointed to the High Court in 2002 and promoted to a newly established Court of Appeal from 2014.

She became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland from 2017, before retiring in 2019.

Finlay Geoghegan specialised in commercial law.

She originally practised as a solicitor in a corporate law firm, before becoming a barrister where she had a broad commercial and civil practice.

Her judicial career included temporary positions at the European Court of Human Rights and the Referendum Commission.

Finlay was born to Thomas Finlay and Alice Blayney.

She is the eldest of five siblings.