Cahir O'Higgins

Photo of Cahir O'Higgins outside Criminal Courts of Justice, Dublin

Cahir O'Higgins (born 1975) is an Irish solicitor. He has been convicted and awaits sentence for assaulting a former colleague, leaving him with facial injuries. He awaits trial on charges of theft from a client and perverting the course of justice.

Personal life

His mother Brigid Hogan-O'Higgins was a former member of parliament, as was his father, Michael O'Higgins. His parents were the first married couple ever to be elected to the same Dáil. He is married with children.

Career

O'Higgins is the principal solicitor in Cahir O’Higgins and Company Solicitors. He has represented numerous celebrities, minorities and high-profile cases before the courts. In 2012, O'Higgins earned more than €670,000 from Ireland's legal aid system.

His work involving the Irish Water protest cases was marked out by the release of protestors when the president of the Irish High court overturned a contempt detention order imprisoning four protestors on a writ of habeas corpus. He also represented Heather Perrin who was the only Irish judge to be prosecuted before the courts as a sitting judge. She was jailed for deception.

On 17 February 2016 O'Higgins acted in the "protest trials" of a serving member of parliament, Joan Collins, local politician Patrick Dunne and 9 other defendants. All of the defendants were exonerated and acquitted of offences arising out of a political protest. The trials lasted three days and were held a week before a general election, which Collins was contesting. The defendants argued the prosecutions were politically motivated. This did not form part of O'Higgins defence strategy where he instead highlighted inconsistencies in police evidence and relied on European court precedent judgements on freedom of expression. This was the first time in Irish courts were a serving member of parliament was successfully defended of offences in connection with protest.

On 20 June 2017, O'Higgins successfully represented defendants in a trial where Paul Murphy, a former MEP and current TD where accused of unlawfully imprisoning Joan Burton, the then deputy prime minister of Ireland.

Legal issues

Cahir O'Higgins pleaded guilty to assaulting Stephen O'Mahoney on the 23rd of March 2022. The assault causing harm had occurred at Wolfe Tone Quay, near the Criminal Courts of Justice on the 11th of February 2021. Stephen O'Mahoney had worked for Cahir O'Higgins for a number of years before leaving to set up his own firm. He was also charged with harrassment. O'Higgins had initially claimed that the cases against him was "A fine piece of fiction". The legal website RollOnFriday contacted Cahir O'Higgins and Co Solicitors for comment and received the following response: "We imagine you will do a clickbate [sic] sensationalist hatchet job whereby Cahir O’Higgins will be portrayed as a thuggish villain when in reality in ordinary course he is an easy going well intentioned placid individual. Therefore there is little or no point in making a comment or seeking a balanced objective or fair assessment. For obvious reasons it is inappropriate that you should publish anything as it would be prejudicial to Cahir O’Higgins right to a fair trial".

Cahir O'Higgins had also been charged with theft from a client and perverting the course of justice. He faces trial on indictment. He is accused of theft of €400 belonging to a Spanish man who was a defendant in District Court proceedings, on July 30th, 2016. The theft allegedly happened at a Londis shop, on Parkgate Street, close to the Criminal Courts of Justice building. The charges alleging intent to pervert the course of public justice, by producing to investigating Det Garda Colm Kelly a copy of notes purportedly made by him on July 30th, 2016 which contained information that he knew to be untrue and that he knew the notes were not made on this date. These offence are in the context of a criminal investigation into the theft allegation. A trial date has been taken and Mr O'Higgins intends to reclaim his reputation.

References

This article "Cahir O'Higgins" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Cahir O'Higgins. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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