Portrait of Ms Justice Mary Laffoy by Artist Hetty Lawlor unveiled as part of The Bar of Ireland’s #IWD2020 Celebrations

A portrait of Ms Justice Mary Laffoy by the award–winning artist Hetty Lawlor, has been unveiled as part of The Bar of Ireland’s International Women’s Day celebrations.

The portrait, which was commissioned by The Bar of Ireland in honour of Justice Mary Laffoy’s extraordinary contribution to the legal profession, will be on permanent display on the walls of the King’s Inns.

A graduate of King’s Inns, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy is a former Supreme Court judge and current President of the Law Reform Commission. Called to The Bar in 1971, she was appointed a judge of the High Court in 1995 and the Supreme Court in 2013. She chaired the first Citizens’ Assembly from July 2016 to 2018, and she was also appointed the first Chairperson of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, in 1999.

Pictured l–r: Mary Griffin, CEO/Under Treasurer of King’s Inns, artist Hetty Lawlor, and Ms Justice Mary Laffoy. 

Justice Laffoy addressed The Bar of Ireland’s Annual International Women’s Day Dinner on the issue of gender equality in legal practice and wider society. Expressing her support and optimism for the work of the Citizens’ Assembly, Justice Laffoy called for a collective response to the issue of gender equality, inviting the invited guests at the event to be ‘each for equal’.

Read The Bar of Ireland’s statement in full here.