Fidelma Macken

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The Honourable Justice Fidelma O'Kelly Macken (born 1945) is a justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland since 2005. She was appointed a High Court judge in 1998. Macken is a fluent French speaker and strongly committed to the ideals of the EU. She succeeded John L. Murray, Chief Justice since July 2004, as Ireland's appointee on the European Court of Justice from October 5, 1999 to September 22, 2004. Appointed initially for a five-year term, she was the first female appointee to the ECJ but had her mandate renewed in 2003. She was appointed a justice of the High Court on October 18, 2004 on her return to Ireland.

When Macken completed secondary school in the 1960s ahe embarked on a world tour that was intended to last a matter of months but continued for over three years. Macken travelled through Australia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, South America, Mexico and Central America. She lived and worked for periods in San Francisco and in Washington - for a lawyer (who was also the first Attorney General of Puerto Rico) who was to inspire her choice of career.

Educated at King's Inns and Trinity College. She became a barrister in 1972; practiced as legal adviser, Patents and Trade Marks Agents (1973 - 1979) and became a Senior Counsel in 1995.

As a lawyer, she specialised on medical defence work and pharmaceutical actions. She acted as defence counsel in a series of cases brought by children against whooping cough vaccine manufacturers for damage allegedly caused by the vaccine. The Supreme Court nominated her to act in three referrals by the President of Ireland querying the constitutionality of new legislation before she became a judge.

She has been a lecturer in Legal Systems and Methods and Averil Deverell Lecturer in Law at University of Dublin.

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