About: Maurice Gaffney

Maurice Gaffney, S.C. (11 October 1916 – 3 November 2016) was an Irish barrister, who at his death at 100, was the oldest practicing barrister in Ireland. Gaffney was born in County Meath to a Royal Irish Constabulary member. He moved to Dublin with his family following events after the 1916 Easter Rising. He initially found employment as a teacher, before becoming a practising member of the Law Library. He was called to the bar in 1954, and promoted to Senior Counsel in 1970. During the 1980s, he was involved in , a landmark case in Irish jurisprudence in which Gaffney successfully argued that a jury's decision can be overturned. In 1996, he was involved in Fianna Fáil's Des Hanafin's attempt to overturn the historic divorce laws that came into force the previous year. He considered himse