Mary Ellen Ring

Mary Ellen Ring is an Irish lawyer who currently serves as a Judge of the High Court and is the Chairperson of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. She formerly practised as a barrister and was a Judge of the Circuit Court.

The Hon. Ms. Justice

Mary Ellen Ring
Judge of the High Court
Assumed office
9 July 2015
Nominated byGovernment of Ireland
Appointed byMichael D. Higgins
Chairperson of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission
Assumed office
August 2015
Nominated byGovernment of Ireland
Judge of the Circuit Court
In office
April 2012 – 9 July 2015
Nominated byGovernment of Ireland
Appointed byMichael D. Higgins
Personal details
NationalityIrish
Alma mater

Early career

Ring grew up in the United States.[1] She studied Politics and Philosophy at University College Dublin and law at Dublin Institute of Technology.[2] She studied at the King's Inns and became a barrister in 1985. She became a senior counsel in 2002.[2] Her practice was primarily focused on criminal law, administrative law and child law.[3] She was counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions in the 2004 trial against Judge Brian Curtin for possession child pornography[4] and in the 2010 case against Eamonn Lillis for the manslaughter of his wife Celine Cawley.[5]

She was the chair of the Irish Women Lawyers' Association.[6] The organisation awarded her the title of Woman of the Year in 2018.[3] She co-founded the Children's Legal Centre and the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development.[2][1] She was appointed to the Advisory Group on Criminal Law and Procedure in 1996 by Minister for Justice Nora Owen.[7]

Judge

Ring was appointed to the Circuit Court in April 2012.[2] She was assigned to the Dublin circuit.[8] She initially presided over Court Five, which was considered "by far the busiest circuit court in the country".[6]

She was the trial judge in case which found Heather Perrin, a judge of the District Court, guilty of deception.[9] She presided over the first trial of Seán FitzPatrick, related to an alleged failure to disclose loans to Anglo Irish Bank's external auditors at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.[10] She sentenced former Senator Ivor Callely to five months in prison in 2014 arising out of his filing of fraudulent expenses.[11]

She was appointed to the High Court in July 2015.[12]

GSOC

Ring became chairperson of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission in August 2015.[2] She was reappointed in 2016.[13] She has been critical of the disciplinary procedures within An Garda Síochána.[14] She has sought to increase the numbers of personnel within GSOC since her appointment.[15] She was critical of the police force in May 2018 at a hearing of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality for not disclosing some internal investigations into gardaí to GSOC.[16]

References
  1. "Forget glass ceilings, build new houses says judge". Law Society Gazette. 9 October 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  2. "Justice Mary Ellen Ring". GSOC. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  3. "Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring to be named Woman of the Year". Irish Legal News. 19 September 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  4. Coulter, Carol (22 April 2004). "Counsel opens case against Judge Curtin". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  5. Newenham, Pamela (4 February 2010). "Lillis sentencing hearing adjourned". The Irish Times.
  6. Gallagher, Conor (19 May 2013). "Judge causes consternation – by working too hard". Irish Independent. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  7. Oireachtas, Houses of the (5 March 1997). "Written Answers. - Working Groups and Committees. – Dáil Éireann (27th Dáil) – Wednesday, 5 Mar 1997 – Houses of the Oireachtas". www.oireachtas.ie. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  8. "Appointments to the Circuit and District Courts". Irish Government News Service. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  9. Gallagher, Conor; O’Keeffe, Cormac (29 November 2012). "Former judge jailed for deception of friend". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  10. "Jury discharged in the trial of Sean FitzPatrick". The Irish Times. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  11. "Ivor Callely jailed for five months for fraudulently claiming expenses". RTÉ News. 28 July 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  12. "President appoints Mary Ellen Ring as a Judge of the High Court". President of Ireland. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  13. "Appointments to Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission". Irish Government News Service. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  14. Clifford, Michael (5 March 2018). "GSOC head criticises Garda disciplinary 'maze'". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  15. McMahon, Aine (7 November 2018). "Gsoc authorised to expand staff by 42". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  16. Reynolds, Paul; McAllister, Edel (8 May 2019). "Garda superintendents call for clarification from GSOC chair". RTÉ News. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.