Patrick MacEntee. Photo: Tom Burke.
Well-known criminal lawyer Patrick MacEntee SC has died at the age of 89.
A native of Co Monaghan, Mr MacEntee acted in a number of high-profile cases during his career. This included acting for the defence in the 1978 Special Criminal Court trial of those accused of the Sallins train robbery – all of whom were convicted and later had their convictions overturned or were granted a pardon.
He was educated at UCD where he was a member of the Drama Society and King’s Inn. He initially practised on the Northern Circuit before moving his practise to Dublin, where he mainly appeared before the Special Criminal Court.
As an observer for the International Commission of Jurists, Mr MacEntee attended a trial of political activists in Namibia, then under South African control, in 1976. He then went on to publish a scathing report on the trial on his return home.
In 1983, Mr MacEntee acted for Malcom Macarthur, the man who killed nurse Bridie Gargan and farmer Donal Dunne.
Mr MacEntee acted in 2000 for Catherine Nevin, the woman convicted of killing her husband Tom Nevin in the Wicklow pub they jointly owned.
In 2005, he was appointed the sole member of a commission of inquiry into the Dublin Monaghan bombings and published his report in 2007.
Away from his legal career, Mr MacEntee had a heavy involvement in culture and academics, where he made a significant contribution to a number of organisations.
He was a board member of the Fondation Irlandaise, the body set up by the Irish and French government to run the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.
He was also a member of the Ireland Literature Exchange (now literature Ireland), chairman of the Irish language drama company Amharclann De hÍde and a trustee of the Kavanagh trust.
