The death has occurred of Mr Donal T. Kearney, a retired district court judge who was involved in a number of controversial cases, including the 1970 arms trial. Mr Kearney, who resumed practice as a solicitor after retiring as a judge in 1984, died on Sunday.
He was appointed to the Dublin Metropolitan District Court in 1970. One of his first cases involved the preliminary hearing into charges against former government ministers Mr Neil Blaney and Mr Charles Haughey for conspiracy to import arms. He dismissed the charges against Mr Blaney because he could find no evidence against him. He returned Mr Haughey and three other defendants for trial. They were subsequently found not guilty in the High Court.
In 1974, Justice Kearney dismissed charges brought by the Attorney General against the Irish Family Planning Association Ltd and Family Planning Services Ltd for the sale, advertising and advocation of contraceptives in contravention of the 1935 Criminal Law Amendment Act. He ruled that, as the booklet used by the two agencies requested contributions from the public but said the contraceptives were free of charge, there had been no sale.
In 1982 he was again embroiled in controversy when he dismissed charges against Mr Pat O'Connor of trying to vote twice in the general election.
At the time, Mr O'Connor was election agent for the then Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey.
Dismissing the charges, Justice Kearney ruled there was no way of proving any particular person had actually voted. Subsequently the Government amended the 1923 Electoral Abuses Act to rectify the discrepancy identified by the judge.
Mr Kearney was active in the legal profession until he reached his 85th birthday in 1998.