Hugh Kennedy

The Constitution Committee meeting at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, with Hugh Kennedy is seated third from the right

On 31 January 1922, Kennedy became the first Attorney General in the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State. Later that year he was appointed by the Provisional Government to the Irish Free State Constitution Commission to draft the Constitution of the Irish Free State. The Irish Free State was established on 6 December 1922. The functions of the Provisional Government were transferred to the Executive Council of the Irish Free State. Kennedy was appointed Attorney General of the Irish Free State on 7 December 1922.

In 1923, he was appointed to the Judiciary Commission by the Government of the Irish Free State, on a reference from the Government to establish a new system for the administration of justice in accordance with the Constitution of the Irish Free State. The Judiciary Commission was chaired by Lord Glenavy, who had also been the last Lord Chancellor of Ireland. It drafted the Courts of Justice Act 1924 for a new court system, including a High Court and a Supreme Court, and provided for the abolition, inter alia, of the Irish Court of Appeal and the Irish High Court of Justice. Most of the judges were not reappointed to the new courts. Kennedy personally oversaw the selection of the new judges, and made impressive efforts to select them on merit alone.[4] The results were not always happy: his diary, of which some extracts have been published, reveal the increasingly unhappy atmosphere in the Supreme Court itself, due to frequent clashes between Kennedy and his colleague Judge Gerald Fitzgibbon, since the two men proved to be so different in temperament and political outlook that they found it almost impossible to work together harmoniously.[5] In a similar vein, Kennedy's legal opinion and choice of words could raise eyebrows amongst legal colleagues[6] and fury in the Executive Council e.g. regarding the Kenmare incident.[7]

He was also a delegate of the Irish Free State to the Fourth Assembly of the League of Nations, between 3–29 September 1923.

He was elected to Dáil Éireann on 27 October 1923, as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD at a by-election in the Dublin South constituency.[8] He was the first person to be elected in a by-election to Dáil Éireann. He resigned his seat when he was appointed Chief Justice of Ireland in 1924.

On 5 June 1924, he was appointed Chief Justice of Ireland, thereby becoming the first Chief Justice of the Irish Free State. He is also the youngest person appointed Chief Justice of Ireland. When he was appointed he was 44 years old. Although the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal had been abolished and replaced by the High Court and the Supreme Court respectively, one of his first acts was to issue a practice note that the wearing of wigs and robes would continue in the new courts. This practice is still continued in trials and appeals in the High Court and the Supreme Court (except in certain matters). He held the position of Chief Justice, until his death on 1 December 1936.

In September 2015, a biography by Senator Patrick Kennedy (no relation) was written on him called Hugh Kennedy: The Great But Neglected Chief Justice.[9]