# High Court of Justice in Ireland

The High Court of Justice in Ireland was the court created by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 to replace the existing court structure in Ireland. Its creation mirrored the reform of the courts of England and Wales five years earlier under the Judicature Acts. The Act created a Supreme Court of Judicature, consisting of a High Court of Justice and a Court of Appeal.

## Establishment

The High Court was created by the Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) Act 1877, through the amalgamation of a number of courts. Most importantly, the three superior common-law courts (the Court of King's Bench, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Exchequer) and the Court of Chancery were merged into the new court. Also merged into it were the courts of Landed Estates, Probate, Matrimonial Causes, Admiralty, and Bankruptcy. However, the right of appeal from Ireland to the House of Lords in England was preserved.
An important consequence of the amalgamation of the superior common-law courts with the court of equity (Chancery) was that, for the first time, the previously separate systems of common law and equity were merged.
The structure of the abolished courts was reflected in the divisions created for the new High Court. These proved to be unnecessarily complex, and the opportunity presented by the death, retirement, and transfer of a number of the judges was taken in order to simplify the organisation of the divisions, so that by 1897 there were only two: Chancery, and the Queen's Bench.
Of the existing office holders, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided in the new Court of Appeal. The Master of the Rolls in Ireland and the Vice-Chancellor moved to the Chancery Division; the latter office was abolished in 1904. The Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas retained his rank until 1887 when the incumbent became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Christopher Palles, the last Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer remained in office until 1916, acting as a judge both of the King's Bench Division and of the Court of Appeal.

## Partition

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 abolished the Supreme Court of Judicature created by the 1877 Act. It split the High Court into separate courts for Northern and Southern Ireland; judges of the former court became judges in Southern Ireland unless they chose otherwise. The Court of Appeal was also split into separate courts with a new overarching High Court of Appeal for Ireland; the latter court sat on a few occasions but was abolished in 1922 in consequence of the establishment of the Irish Free State.

## Judges

The following judges held the title of Judge of the High Court of Justice in Ireland from the Court's creation in 1878 to the abolition of the pre-Independence Courts in 1924.
| Year appointed | Name | Division | Year left office | Reason for leaving office |
| 1878 | William Keogh | Common Pleas Division | 1878 | Death |
| 1878 | James O'Brien | Queen's Bench Division | 1882 | Death |
| 1878 | Francis Alexander FitzGerald | Exchequer Division | 1882 | Resigned |
| 1878 | John FitzGerald | Queen's Bench Division | 1882 | Appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary |
| 1878 | Robert Warren | Probate and Matrimonial Division | 1897 | Death |
| 1878 | James Anthony Lawson | Common Pleas Division | 1882 | Transferred to the Queen's Bench Division |
| 1878 | Stephen Woulfe Flanagan | Chancery Division | 1885 | Retired |
| 1878 | Charles Robert Barry | Queen's Bench Division | 1897 | Death |
| 1878 | Richard Dowse | Exchequer Division | 1890 | Death |
| 1878 | Henry Ormsby | Chancery Division | 1885 | Retired |
| 1878 | Michael Harrison | Common Pleas Division | 1888 | Transferred to the Queen's Bench Division |
| 1881 | John O'Hagan | Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission | 1890 | Death |
| 1881 | Edward Falconer Litton | Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission | 1890 | Death |
| 1882 | James Anthony Lawson | Queen's Bench Division | 1887 | Death |
| 1882 | William O'Brien | Common Pleas Division | 1883 | Transferred to the Queen's Bench Division |
| 1882 | William Drennan Andrews | Exchequer Division | 1897 | Transferred to the Queen's Bench Division |
| 1883 | William Moore Johnson | Queen's Bench Division | 1909 | Retired |
| 1883 | William O'Brien | Queen's Bench Division | 1899 | Death |
| 1883 | James Murphy | Common Pleas Division | 1888 | Transferred to the Queen's Bench Division |
| 1885 | John Monroe | Chancery Division | 1896 | Resignation |
| 1887 | Hugh Holmes | Common Pleas Division | 1888 | Transferred to the Queen's Bench Division |
| 1888 | James Murphy | Queen's Bench Division | 1892 | Transferred to the Exchequer Division |
| 1888 | Hugh Holmes | Queen's Bench Division | 1897 | promoted to be a Lord Justice of Appeal |
| 1888 | John George Gibson | Queen's Bench Division | 1921 | Retired |
| 1890 | Edmund Thomas Bewley | Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission | 1898 | Retired |
| 1892 | Dodgson Hamilton Madden | Queen's Bench Division | 1919 | Retired |
| 1896 | John Ross | Chancery Division | 1921 | Appointed as Lord Chancellor for Ireland |
| 1897 | Walter Boyd | Queen's Bench Division | 1921 | Died |
| 1897 | William Kenny | Queen's Bench Division | 1921 | Died |
| 1898 | Richard Edmund Meredith | Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission | 1906 | Appointed as Master of the Rolls |
| 1900 | Dunbar Plunket Barton | Queen's Bench Division | 1904 | Transferred to the Chancery Division |
| 1901 | George Wright | King's Bench Division | 1913 | Died |
| 1904 | Dunbar Plunket Barton | Chancery Division | 1918 | Retired |
| 1906 | James Owens Wylie | Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission | 1920 | Retired |
| 1907 | William Huston Dodd | King's Bench Division | 1924 | Court abolished |
| 1913 | Thomas Molony | King's Bench Division | 1915 | promoted to be a Lord Justice of Appeal |
| 1913 | Jonathan Pim | King's Bench Division | 1924 | Court abolished |
| 1916 | John Gordon | King's Bench Division | 1922 | Death |
| 1917 | William Moore | King's Bench Division | 1921 | promoted to be a Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland |
| 1918 | James O'Connor | Chancery Division | 1918 | promoted to be a Lord Justice of Appeal |
| 1918 | John Blake Powell | Chancery Division | 1923 | Death |
| 1919 | Arthur Samuels | King's Bench Division | 1924 | Court abolished |
| 1920 | William Evelyn Wylie | Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission | 1924 | Court abolished - re-appointed as judicial commissioner 1924 and retired in 1936 |

## Subsequent developments

Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922, the High Court of Justice in Southern Ireland (now the High Court of the Irish Free State) remained in existence for two years, in accordance with the "carry-over" provisions in Article 75 of the Constitution of the Irish Free State. It was abolished by the Courts of Justice Act 1924, which replaced it with a new High Court. With only two exceptions, the judges of the old High Court were retired on a generous pension.
In Northern Ireland a new Supreme Court of Judicature was created in 1978, although the basic court structure remained largely unchanged.