Legal history made as Judge John O’Connor is hearing family law cases in his native Mayo

Judge John O’Connor has returned to his native Mayo this week to hear a number of family law cases at Castlebar Circuit Court, marking a small piece of legal history in the county.

Judge O’Connor, who worked as a solicitor with Swinford based legal firm, P. O’Connor & Son in the 1980s, becomes the first former member of the Mayo Solicitors’ Bar Association (MSBA) to sit as a Circuit Court judge in Mayo.

He was president of the Dublin Solicitors’ Bar Association before leaving practice as a solicitor to become a Judge.

Appointed to the District Court in 2012, Judge O’Connor was promoted to the Circuit Court in 2019 and is usually based sitting in Dublin.

Judges from outside the county have been drafted in to help address a significant backlog of cases in Circuit Courts across the country, including matters that have been outstanding for some time.

Judge O’Connor served for many years as a member of the Law Society Council.

He was educated in Glenstal Abbey School, at the University College Dublin, NUI Galway and the Law Society, and enrolled as a solicitor in October 1980.

He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2008 and an accredited mediator in 2009.

Judge O’Connor hails from a distinguished Mayo legal family with strong roots in Swinford dating back to 1900 when the family law firm was founded by his grandfather, Pat O’Connor.

PHOTO: Circuit Court Judge John O’Connor received a warm welcome yesterday (Tuesday) on his return to his native Co. Mayo to begin hearing a number of family law cases. Fellow members of the judiciary – Judge Eoin Garavan (Circuit Court) and Judge Vincent Deane (District Court) – joined members of the Bar Council of Ireland and the Mayo Solicitors Bar Association (MSBA) as a commemorative photograph to mark the occasion was taken on the steps of Castlebar Courthouse. County Registrar Annie Marie Courell and Breda Byron, Manager, Manager, Castlebar Courts Office, are included in the photo.

Front row, left to right, Ann Marie Courell, Judge Garavan, Judge O’Connor (centre),, Judge Vincent Deane, Gary Mulchrone, former president of the Mayo Solicitors Bar Association and Breda Byron. PHOTO: CONOR MCKEOWN