John Loyola Murray (born 1943) is an Irish judge and served as the Chief Justice of Ireland from 2004 to 2011.
Murray was born in Limerick in 1943 and educated at Crescent College, Limerick, Rockwell College, County Tipperary, University College Dublin, and the Honorable Society of King's Inns. He was President of the Union of Students in Ireland in 1966/67. He qualified as a barrister in 1967 and had a successful law practice dealing with commercial, civil, and constitutional law.
He has served on the Supreme Court since 1999, and before that was a member of the European Court of Justice prior to his appointment from 1992. He served the Fianna Fáil government as Attorney General of Ireland from 17 August to 14 December 1982. The Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, appointed him as Attorney General after his predecessor, Patrick Connolly, resigned abruptly over the GUBU scandal, when a murderer Malcolm McArthur was arrested in Connolly's Dalkey flat.
His next term in office as Attorney General extended from 11 March 1987 to 25 September 1991. In 1988 he refused to allow the extradition of Fr. Patrick Ryan to Britain on explosives charges dealing with the Provisional IRA on the basis that the trial he would be given would not be fair to due excessive media coverage and remarks made in Parliament by the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher which were considered prejudicial.
In 1991 he was appointed as a judge to the European Court of Justice serving until 1999 when he was appointed to the Supreme Court. He was appointed as Chief Justice of Ireland in 2004 and retired as Chief Justice in 2011, though he remains a member of the Supreme Court.
In 2011 Murray became involved in controversy with the Government over a proposal to amend the Constitution to allow the remuneration of judges to be reduced in parallel to the remuneration of public servants in State employment.
The criticisms of the Government’s plans were contained in a 12-page critique by the Chief Justice, John Murray, and the President of the High Court, Nicholas Kearns and published in the Court Services website, but subsequently redacted at the request of the Government.
He is married to Gabrielle Walsh, daughter of Brian Walsh, a former Supreme Court judge.
In February 2012, he was appointed an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Limerick, a position he is to hold for two years.
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