John O'Byrne was an Irish judge and barrister who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1940 to 1954, a Judge of the High Court from 1926 to 1940 and Attorney General of Ireland from 1924 to 1926.
15 Facts About John O'Byrne
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John O'Byrne was born on 24 April 1884, the fourth son of Patrick O'Byrne and Mary O'Byrne, of Seskin, County Wicklow.
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John O'Byrne was educated at the Patrician Monastery, Tullow, County Carlow, and studied Moral and Mental Science at the Royal University, where he graduated in 1907 in First Place with First Class Honours.
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John O'Byrne was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1908.
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John O'Byrne joined the Irish Land Commission, where he acquired an intimate knowledge of the system of real property and land tenure in Ireland.
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John O'Byrne stood as a pro-Treaty Sinn Fein candidate at the 1922 general election for the Wexford constituency but was not elected.
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John O'Byrne was thus one of the constitutional architects of the Irish Free State.
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John O'Byrne was appointed King's Counsel in 1924, becoming the last member of counsel in the Irish Free State to be appointed, thereafter counsel were appointed as Senior Counsel.
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John O'Byrne was a delegate of the Irish Free State to the League of Nations in the same year.
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John O'Byrne was Chairman of the Irish Legal Terms Advisory Committee from 14 May 1948 to 13 May 1953.
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However, he believed that John O'Byrne had one serious flaw- he was excessively strong-minded and having made up his mind was most reluctant to change it.
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In Deale's view, John O'Byrne's summing-up was designed to convince the jury that the accused was guilty.
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John O'Byrne married Margaret McGuire in 1924; and they had five children.
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John O'Byrne's widow brought a celebrated test case arguing that judges could not be required to pay income tax as this breached the Constitutional guarantee that their incomes can not be reduced.
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One of his sons was Paddy John O'Byrne who became one of the best known radio presenters in South Africa.