THE MAIN PLAYERS: MICHAEL MORIARTY:Rich in experience, Moriarty was a universally popular choice for the tribunal, writes OLIVIA KELLY
MR JUSTICE Michael Moriarty (64) was no stranger to tribunal work when he was appointed to chair the second tribunal of inquiry into payments to politicians, having been senior counsel representing the tribunal during the Kerry Babies inquiry in the 1980s.
His appointment to chair the inquiry in September 1997 came just over a year after he was made a High Court judge and 10 years after he was first appointed a judge of the Circuit Court, where he had established a reputation for conscientiousness, fairness and compassion.
A well-liked and respected judge, known to his friends as Mossie, he has been described as affable and courteous. He is also seen to favour modernising the judicial system and is known for his concern for the marginalised in society.
He was born in Belfast in 1946 into a middle-class family and was sent to board at Willow Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin, the preparatory school for Blackrock College, until 1960, when his parents moved to Dublin from Belfast, where his father was a doctor.
He was young, at 40, to be appointed a Circuit Court judge in 1987, only two years after becoming a senior counsel. His career has encompassed all aspects of the law and began in 1968 when, a graduate of University College Dublin, he was called to the bar. While establishing himself he gave law tutorials in technical colleges in Dublin. As a junior he devilled for Harry Hill, who went on to become Master of the High Court.
He became a senior counsel in 1982 and was appointed chairman of the Employment Appeals Tribunal in 1986, before his appointment to the Circuit Court.
As a junior prosecuting counsel he was involved in the Mountbatten murder case, and he appeared for the DPP in the Shercock case in the mid-1980s in which gardaí were accused of the death of a man in custody. He also appeared as a senior counsel for the attorney general in the Supreme Court hearing for the extradition of Dominic McGlinchey. One of his final significant cases, before the tribunal began, was the high profile Rocca-Ryan civil assault case.
He was chairman of the Lord Mayor’s Commission on Crime in Dublin which produced a report in 1994 focusing on working-class victims of crime. He has also been a frequent visitor to prisons to see the conditions there and has worked with the Catholic Youth Council.
He is known as having a keen interest in sport. He used to play cricket with Pembroke, and played soccer. He also played rugby and continued to do so when he became a barrister. He played for the Irish bar in matches against the north-eastern circuit of the English bar. He is also an opera enthusiast.
He was a universally popular choice to chair the tribunal, having been first appointed to the bench by a Labour-Fine Gael coalition and to the tribunal by a Fianna Fáil-PD government.
Respect for his judgment endured throughout the 12 years of proceedings, despite his having given hostage to fortune by his initial estimate that the job would take six to eight months.