1/9 Given all the chatter online about the first majority female panels in the Supreme Courts of New Zealand and the United Kingdom this week, I did some digging to find the first one in Ireland. It's more than EIGHTEEN years ago.
2/9 Denham J was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court, in 1992; McGuinness J was the second, in January 2000; and a female 2-1 majority on a 3-judge panel of the Supreme Court happened almost immediately after that appointment, in February 2000.
3/9 In Dalton v Governor of the Training Unit [2000] IESC 49 (29 February 2000) bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/… Denham and McGuinness JJ sat with Hardiman J.
4/9 Macken J was the third woman appointed to the Supreme Court, in May 1992; and a female 3-2 majority on a 5-judge panel of the Supreme happened soon after that appointment, in November 2005.
5/9 In DPP v Gilligan [2005] IESC 78 (23 November 2005) bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/… Denham, McGuinness and Macken JJ sat with Geoghegan and Fennelly JJ.
6/9 There does not seem to have been a 3-judge panel on which all three of Denham, McGuinness and Macken JJ sat before McGuinness J retired at the end of 2005.
7/9 Denham became CJ in 2011. The next women appointed were Laffoy J (2013–2017), Dunne J (2013-), O'Malley J (2015-), and Finlay Geoghegan J (2017-). Denham CJ retired in 2017.
8/9 The first all-female 3-judge panel is Cagney v The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland [2015] IESC 80 (22 October 2015) bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/… on which Denham CJ, Laffoy and Dunne JJ sat.
9/9 The first female 4-3 majority on a 7-judge panel was Murray v Budds [2017] IESC 4 (02 February 2017) bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/… where Denham CJ, Laffoy, Dunne and O'Malley JJ sat with O'Donnell, McKechnie and MacMenamin JJ.
10/9 correcting a date in tweet 4/9, Macken J was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2005
11/9 These tweets are consolidated, updated, and illustrated, in a single blog-post here: cearta.ie/2018/10/female…
