Retired High Court judge Robert Barr dies

Retired High Court judge Mr Justice Robert Barr, who headed the tribunal of inquiry into the fatal shooting of John Carthy in Abbeylara, Co Longford in 2000, has died.

Among the late judge's key decisions was his 2000 landmark judgment that the State was obliged to provide free primary education for Jamie Sinnott, then a 23-year-old autistic man, beyond the age of 18. The judge also awarded a total €225,000 damages to Jamie and his mother Kathy for breach of their constitutional rights.

His judgment had significant implications for some 1,200 autistic children but was later overturned by the Supreme Court which held the right to primary education ended at 18.

Mr Justice Barr also presided at a three judge Special Criminal Court which in 2002 found Colm Murphy, of Upper Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth, guilty of conspiracy in relation to the 1998 Omagh bombing in which 29 people died.

Ultimately acquitted

That conviction was later overturned on appeal, a retrial was ordered and Mr Murphy was ultimately acquitted of the charge in 2010.

Years earlier, Mr Justice Barr was part of the Special Criminal Court which dealt with charges against then DUP MP Peter Robinson, later Northern Ireland First Minister, and others following an incursion by loyalists into Clontibret, Co Monaghan, in August 1986.

Following 17 years on the High Court bench, Mr Justice Barr retired aged 72 in 2002 and later headed a two-year tribunal of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the shooting dead of John Carthy at Abbeylara by gardai during a siege.

Mr Justice Barr, who was aged in his mid 80s, is survived by his wife Mary and his four sons, Robert, Anthony, Patrick, Michael and daughter Louise. His son Anthony is a serving High Court judge.

His funeral will take place following 10am mass today (friday) at Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Foxrock, in Dublin before burial at Shanganagh Cemetery.