Retired Supreme Court judge Hugh Geoghegan dies aged 86

Retired Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan has died at the age of 86.

Mr Justice Geoghegan came from a family steeped in law. His father, James, was also a Supreme Court judge and in 1981 Mr Justice Geoghegan himself married another retired Supreme Court judge, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan, also from a well-known legal family.

Born in Athlone, Co Westmeath, Mr Justice Geoghegan received his education at Clongowes Wood College, University College Dublin and the King’s Inns.

He was called to the Bar in 1962 and became a senior counsel in 1977, practising in Dublin and the Midland Circuit. He appeared before the tribunal into the Stardust fire disaster and chaired a commission that recommended the formation of the Labour Relations Commission.

He was appointed a judge of the High Court in 1992 and became a judge of the Supreme Court eight years later.

In an address to the International Prison Chaplains Conference in 2003, Mr Justice Geoghegan criticised media accusations of alleged “soft” sentencing of criminals and comparisons with the treatment of victims.

It was “an absurd idea that because a judge or other powers-that-be demonstrate concern for the rehabilitation of a criminal, they are thereby showing lack of respect or lack of concern for the victim”, he said.

The constant media contrasting of the two was the “most damaging and dangerous of all the errors that are made in an ill-thought-out public perception of the criminal system”, he said.

He said “victim impact and the distress caused to a victim are important factors in sentencing” but the potential of rehabilitating the offender so as to prevent future crimes was “equally important”.

“The one clear message that should be got across is that rehabilitation is always to the benefit of the public even more than it is to the benefit of the prisoner,” he said.

When he retired from the Supreme Court bench in 2010, senior counsel Michael Collins, the then chairman of the Bar Council, said “kindness” was the one word that summed up Mr Justice Geoghegan’s judicial and personal qualities. His judgments were infused with a deep sense of humanity and compassion, he said.

Mr Justice Geoghegan, who died on Sunday, is survived by his wife and three children, including Fine Gael Councillor and Dublin Lord Mayor James Geoghegan.