Justice Catherine McGuinness has been appointed to be an Adviser to President and to sit on the Council of State. She is one of seven people to be appointed by President Michael D Higgins. This is the second occasion on which she has been so appointed.
The Council of State is appointed to aid and counsel the President on all matters. It comprises three categories of members including the seven individuals selected by the head of state, ex officio and former office holders.
Justice McGuiness is a long serving member of the General Synod and especially of its legal committees. She also contributed greatly to church and national issues such as adoption and family courts.
Catherine is the daughter and granddaughter of C of I rectors. Her maternal grandfather was rector of Tullamore, and her father Cann Robert C. Ellis was a long serving rector of Dunmurry Parish in Connor diocese, where her mother was greatly involved in MU and GFS work.
Catherine McGuinness was educated in Alexandra College, Trinity College Dublin and the King’s Inns. In the 1960s she worked for the the Labour Party.[4] She was called to the Irish bar in 1977 at age 42. In 1989 she was called to the Inner Bar.
In 1979 she was elected as an independent candidate to Seanad Éireann at a by-election on 11 December 1979 in the Dublin University constituency following the resignation of Conor Cruise O’Brien, taking her seat in the 14th Seanad. She was re-elected at the 1981 elections to the 15th Seanad, and in 1983 to the 17th Seanad, where she served until 1987. She lost her seat to David Norris. She was appointed to the Council of State on 2 May 1988 by President Patrick Hillery and served until 1990.
She was appointed a judge in the Circuit Court in 1994, the first ever woman. In 1996 she was appointed to the High Court and remained there until her appointment to the Supreme Court in January 2000.
In November 2005 she was appointed Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway. She was also appointed President of the Law Reform Commission in 2005, and held that position until 2011.
She was married to the late Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, writer and broadcaster.
She has written the preface to a forthcoming publication by Changing Attitudes Ireland.
Ex officio and former office holders sitting on the Council of State include former presidents Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, former Taoisigh Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern, Brian Cowen as well as current Taoiseach Enda Kenny.