SEAMUS MACKENNA:SEAMUS MACKENNA SC, who has died aged 81, was one of Ireland's leading barristers. During a career that spanned six decades he was involved in many of the major criminal trials in the State.
He led the State’s prosecution of the late Charles Haughey and his co-defendants who were charged with conspiracy to import arms illegally in 1970.
Twenty years later he represented Larry Goodman at the Beef tribunal, the proceedings and subsequent findings of which caused major tensions between two sets of coalition government partners.
Regarded as one of the outstanding barristers of his generation, he was described by his friend and colleague Gerry Tynan SC as “a joy and a lesson to behold when he was on his feet at full tilt”.
Former attorney general Dermot Gleeson spoke of him “waging an unrelenting war on dullness and boredom”, describing him as the best courtroom advocate he had ever encountered.
Born in Scotstown, Co Monaghan, in 1929, he was the youngest of five children of Patrick and Maura MacKenna, who both taught at Urbleshanny national school. He attended St Macartan’s College, Monaghan, securing first place in Leaving Certificate mathematics. He later studied at UCD, graduating in 1949.
He spent a summer working as a manual worker in England to support himself while studying at the King’s Inns. Called to the Bar with Donal Barrington, Ulick O’Connor and others in 1951, he became a senior counsel in 1968.
He built an extensive practice in Dublin, specialising in personal injury cases, and also practised in the northern and southern circuits. In 1970 he represented An Garda Síochána at the tribunal of inquiry into the Seven Days programme on moneylending.
In 1975 he represented two of three defendants whose extradition to the UK was sought to answer charges of defrauding bookmakers in the Gay Future betting coup.
Three years later he acted for the State when Garda commissioner Edmund Garvey’s purported dismissal by the government was found to be “invalid”. In 1979 he was counsel for the tribunal of inquiry into the causes of the Whiddy Island tanker disaster in which 50 people died.
He acted in a number of high-profile libel cases, including the then minister for education Patrick Cooney’s case against the Sunday Tribune in 1986. And he represented former taoiseach Albert Reynolds in his case against The Irish Times in 1995.
In both cases settlements in favour of the plaintiffs were agreed. He represented Ben Dunne at the McCracken tribunal which investigated payments to politicians.
In 1987 he became the first chairman of the Garda Complaints Board which was established to examine complaints made by members of the public against gardaí.
But the board was under-resourced, and a backlog of cases quickly built up. In August 1989 the board announced that it could no longer process new cases. MacKenna said he deplored the fact that the board had been placed in such an invidious position. He was reappointed in 1997.
When giving evidence to the Morris tribunal 10 years later he said he regretted that the board lacked the power and resources to investigate fully claims of corruption and harassment made by members of the McBrearty family against gardaí in Donegal.
A tough adversary, nevertheless when he made an error he immediately sought to correct it, as at a High Court sitting in 1977 when he apologised to the people of Clare for having referred to the Kilfenora Céilí Band as a “pop group”.
In 1982 he was invited to become a Bencher of the King’s Inns and later became a Senior Bencher.
Stepping down as chairman of the Bar Council in 1990, he acknowledged that it was difficult but “not impossible” for someone from a completely deprived background to enter the legal profession. It was impossible for such a person to become an accountant or doctor, he argued: “That’s a socio-economic problem, it’s not one we can solve at the moment.”
A sports enthusiast, he was a member of Milltown, Portmarnock and Rosses Point golf clubs.
Predeceased by his daughter Susan in 1998, he is survived by his wife Anna (née Lynch), son Kieran and daughters Caitriona and Laura.
Seamus MacKenna: born April 29th, 1929; died June 16th, 2010