Death of former Supreme Court judge
Former Supreme Court judge Hugh O’Flaherty has died at the age of 88.
His death notice said that he died peacefully in his native Cahirciveen, Co Kerry.
Called to the bar in 1959, he was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1990 before resigning in 1999.
In 1992, Mr Justice O'Flaherty was one of five judges to decide in the landmark X case, when the Supreme Court allowed a pregnant 14-year old girl who was suicidal to travel to Britain for an abortion.
The ruling established that abortion was permissible if the mother faced “a real and substantial risk” to her life due to threat of suicide.
He resigned in 1999, saying that he did not believe that he had done anything wrong, after a controversy surrounding his intervention into the case of Phillip Sheedy, an architect who in 1997 pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
Funeral arrangements
Pre-deceased by his wife Kathleen, he is survived by his children Hugh, Catherine, Rory, and Bríd.
His removal to the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church of the Holy Cross, Cahirciveen will take place on Thursday at 8.30pm, with requiem Mass on Friday morning at 10am.
The funeral will proceed to The Star of the Sea Church, Sandymount, Dublin later that evening.
Mass will be held in the Sandymount church at 10am on Saturday with the burial afterwards in Kilternan Cemetery.