How going to court on her holidays sparked a career

BLINNE Ní Ghrálaigh developed her interest in law by spending her school holidays in court watching barristers at work.

‘We didn’t have a television for a good while so I suppose it was a bit like real-life Rumpole Of The Bailey for me,’ she said. ‘I found it fascinating.’

The human rights lawyer and international law expert has been described by her peers as tenacious, skilful, tactically brilliant and ‘frighteningly clever’.

In an interview with Irish Legal News in 2022, the Irish woman told how she was brought up by her ‘wonderful’ mother, together with her older sister. Her mother was from Dublin and her father from Mayo. She grew up between Ireland, London and the north of France.

The family ultimately settled in London, with extended trips back to Ireland. The Irish connection remains strong – she is affiliated with the Bars of Ireland, North and South, as well as the Bar of England and Wales.

During her early teens in London, Ms Ní Ghrálaigh would often visit court to follow criminal trials. However, she took the long route to qualifying as a lawyer, studying French and Latin at university before reading law.

Having studied to be a solicitor, she was offered a position as a legal observer on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. She made the move from London to Derry, spending a year as a legal observer and another year working for a solicitor’s firm representing many of the families of the Bloody Sunday dead and wounded.

She is now based in London and has practised as a barrister with Matrix Chambers since 2005.

She previously appeared before the International Court of Justice on behalf of Croatia in a case alleging genocide by Serbia.

Ms Ní Ghrálaigh acted for Conradh na Gaeilge in 2021 in an Irish family’s battle to have the Irish language inscribed on their mother’s grave in England. She also acted for the Hooded Men, and for the family of Jean Smyth in the Supreme Court, and has worked on several Troublesrelated cases in Belfast.