Bar Council of Ireland

The Bar of Ireland is the regulatory and representative body for barristers practising law in the Republic of Ireland, active since 1897. The General Council of the Bar of Ireland is composed of twenty-five members: twenty who are elected, four co-opted, and the Attorney-General, who holds office ex officio. Every year ten members are elected for two-year terms, five by senior counsel and five by junior counsel.

The Bar of Ireland funds the Law Library, which has premises in Dublin in the Four Courts, Church Street, and the Criminal Courts of Justice, and also a smaller library in Cork. Membership of the Law Library is in effect compulsory for barristers wishing to practise in the Republic and is often used as a metonym for the Irish Bar itself. Prior to the creation of the Bar of Ireland in 1897, barristers in Ireland were only loosely organised through their occupation of the physical premises of the Law Library.

Of the 13 Taoisigh since the founding of the State, six trained to be barristers: John A Costello, Liam Cosgrave, Jack Lynch, Garret FitzGerald, Charles Haughey and John Bruton. Mary Robinson, Ireland's first female president, was also a successful barrister before pursuing a career in politics and then human rights. President Mary McAleese was a barrister and law lecturer. Seán MacBride, who was the only person to be awarded both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Lenin Peace Prize, was also a barrister. Of the six Irish European Commissioners since 1973, four have been barristers: Richard Burke, Michael O'Kennedy, Peter Sutherland and David Byrne. Patrick Pearse, the leading Irish revolutionary of the twentieth century, had an early interest in the law, trained to be a barrister at the King's Inns and was called to the Bar in 1901. He practised at the Bar for a time, but instead of pursuing a legal career he decided to spend his life challenging the existing authority in the country. Sir Edward Carson, the famous orator and Unionist politician, began his career as a barrister. The first leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party was Isaac Butt, one of the most skilled barristers of the day. The most important Irish politician of the early nineteenth century, Daniel O'Connell, was one of the most distinguished barristers of his day. Robert Emmet, the Irish revolutionary, studied at the King's Inns; the brilliance of his speech from the dock captured the popular imagination and created a powerful and enduring legend. Other famous Irish barristers include John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, Wolfe Tone, and Henry Grattan.

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