Catherine McGuinness

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The Honourable Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, (born November 14, 1934), President of the Law Reform Commission and a former justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and educated in Belfast and Dublin (Alexandra College, Trinity College Dublin and the King's Inns). She was called to the Irish bar in 1977. In 1989 she was called to the Inner Bar, and called to the Bar of New South Wales in 1993.

In 1979 she was elected as an independent candidate to Seanad Éireann (the Irish Senate) at a by-election in the Dublin University constituency following the resignation of Conor Cruise O'Brien, taking her seat in the 14th Seanad. She was re-elected at the 1981 elections to the 15th Seanad, and in 1983 to the 17th Seanad, where she served until 1987.

In addition to her judicial career, Mrs Justice McGuinness has served on An Bord Uchtála (the Adoption Board), the Voluntary Health Insurance Board, the National Economic and Social Council, the Second Commission on the Status of Women, and has chaired the National Social Services Board, the Board of National College of Art and Design, the Employment Equality Agency, the Kilkenny Incest Investigation, the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation and the Commission on the Points System. She is currently the Chair of the Irish Universities Quality Board.

She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster, the National University of Ireland and the University of Dublin

In November 2005 she was appointed Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway.

She was married to broadcaster and writer Proinsias Mac Aonghusa (June 23, 1933 - September 28, 2003) and has three children - Caitríona, Donal and Diarmaid [1]