George Gavan Duffy
George Gavan Duffy (21 October
1882 - 10 June
1951) was an
Irish politician.
George Gavan Duffy was born in
Cheshire,
England in 1882, the son of Sir
Charles Gavan Duffy and his third wife, Louise.
His half-brother Sir
Frank Gavan Duffy (
1852 –
1936) was the fourth Chief Justice of the
High Court of Australia, sitting on the bench of the High Court from
1913 to
1935.
Duffy qualified as a solicitor and practised in
London until
1917, when he was called to the Irish bar and came to live in
Dublin. He defended several of the rebels of the
Easter Rising, including Sir
Roger Casement. Although the case was unsuccessful and Casement executed, the trial had an enormous effect on Duffy and after a short spell he moved to
Ireland permanently and became immersed in Irish political life.
During the
1918 Westminster Election, Duffy was elected as a
Sinn Féin MP for South County Dublin. He was sent to
Paris to join
Seán T. Ã" Ceallaigh as an envoy of the newly-declared
Irish Republic. Duffy published articles and pamphlets urging recognition of Ireland as a sovereign nation whilst in Paris which caused increasing embarrassment to the French establishment, who believed his publications were damaging Franco-British relations. Finally, after publishing a letter he had sent to Premier
Georges Clemenceau in protest against the maltreatment of
Terence MacSwiney in prison, Duffy was officially banished from Paris. He then went to
Rome and from there travelled through Europe on behalf of the Ministry of the
Irish Republic.
When
Eamon de Valera chose his plenipotentiaries to negotiate the
Anglo-Irish Treaty in
1921 Duffy was chosen due mainly to his legal expertise. He protested against signing the Treaty but did so reluctantly, becoming the last person to sign. During the debates which followed in
Dáil Éireann, Duffy stated that he would recommend the Treaty reluctantly but sincerely as he saw no alternative for the achievement of independence. He also placed the onus on the people who were responsible for drafting the Constitution of the Irish Free State to frame it in accordance with the terms of the Treaty. He disagreed, however, with Griffith's decision to show the draft constitution to
Lloyd George who immediately ordered that references to the King had to be inserted as well as an Oath of Allegiance. This prompted Duffy to resign but he was compelled to remain in office due to the
Civil War, serving as
Minister for Foreign Affairs from January 1922 to July
1922.
Duffy's tenure in office was cut short by his decision to resign when the
Executive Council of the Irish Free State abolished the Republican Courts and executed his good friend
Erskine Childers. He stood in the
1923 general election as an Independent candidate but failed to be re-elected.
Duffy returned to the Irish Bar and built up a large practice and was engaged in some notable constitutional cases such as the Land Annuities controversy in which he claimed that the
Irish Free State could not be bound either in honour or in law to hand over annuities to Britain. He was appointed
Senior Counsel in
1930 and Judge of the High Court in 1936. He acted as an unofficial legal advisor to de Valera during the drafting of the
1937 Constitution of Ireland and was consulted on many issues pertaining to it. He was also a member of the commission to set up the second house of the
Oireachtas,
Seanad Éireann, in 1937.
In 1946, at the height of his legal career, he was appointed President of the High Court, a position he held for the rest of his life.
Duffy died at his home in Bushy Park Road,
Terenure on
10 June,
1951.
Golding, G.M.
George Gavan Duffy 1882-1951: a legal biography (Dublin, 1982)
