Harry Whelehan

Harry Whelehan is a barrister and former Attorney General of Ireland. He was President of the High Court for two days in 1994 before resigning over the Brendan Smyth affair.

Taoiseach Charles Haughey appointed Whelehan attorney general to the Fianna Fáil–PD coalition on 26 September 1991, replacing John L. Murray, who had been nominated to the European Court of Justice. Whelehan was retained by Albert Reynolds after Haughey's resignation, and reappointed by the Fianna Fáil–Labour coalition after the 1992 general election.

In 1992 Whelehan was the attorney general in the extremely controversial "X Case", in which he sought an injunction to prevent "Miss X", a teenager pregnant from a sexual assault, travelling abroad for an abortion. This was a test case of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, which guarantees the "right to life of the unborn". In a 2010 documentary, government press secretary Seán Duignan said some ministers felt Whelehan should have turned a blind eye to the case. Whelehan expressed regret for "the upset, the sadness and the trauma which was visited on everybody involved", but felt he had a duty to uphold the Constitution, and that only he had locus standi for the fetus involved.

Whelehan intervened in the Beef Tribunal to prevent Ray Burke being questioned about cabinet discussions on the beef industry. His argument that cabinet confidentiality was paramount was controversially accepted by the Supreme Court. The Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland passed in 1997 loosened this restriction.

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