Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh
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International lawyer
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh | |
|---|---|
| Born | Blinne Nessa Áine Ní Ghrálaigh |
| Citizenship | Ireland England |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations | Lawyer International lawyer |
| Employer | Matrix Chambers |
| Known for | Croatia–Serbia genocide case Colston Four trial South Africa's genocide case against Israel |
Blinne Nessa Áine Ní Ghrálaigh KC is an Irish lawyer who has worked in England and Ireland. She specialises in human rights and international law.
As an international human rights lawyer she has participated in cases such as Croatia–Serbia genocide case (2015), Colston Four trial (2020) and South Africa's genocide case against Israel (2023).
Ní Ghrálaigh spent her early childhood in Glenamoy,[1] a village in County Mayo. Her mother was from Dublin and her father from Mayo.[2] Ní Ghrálaigh grew up in Holloway, North London where her mother taught at Tufnell Park Primary School.[3] She was interested in law from a young age, and would spend her school holidays visiting the gallery of the Old Bailey. She studied French and Latin at Queens' College, Cambridge on a Foundation Scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Modern and Medieval Languages.[4]
After graduating, Ní Ghrálaigh worked for an American think tank, for an NGO, and as a paralegal for a human rights firm in London. She was offered a job as a legal observer on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, prompting her to move to Derry for a year. Ní Ghrálaigh said of the experience in 2022, "It was an immense privilege to be part of that historic legal process" and that she remains friends with a number of the families she worked with.[3] She went on to complete a Graduate Diploma in Law at the University of Westminster and a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Legal Studies at New York University. She also took a vocational course at the Inns of Court School of Law.[5]
Career
Ní Ghrálaigh joined Matrix Chambers in 2005, when she was called to the Bar of England and Wales. Later she was also called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2013 and to the Bar of Ireland in 2017. She was vice chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) from 2014 to 2019. In 2016, she was a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School.[6]
At the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, Ní Ghrálaigh was appointed to King's Counsel[7][8] and welcomed as a new silk by Lincoln's Inn.[9] Also in 2022, she was shortlisted for Barrister of the Year by The Lawyer and placed third.[10][11]
In July 2025, Ní Ghrálaigh became an adjunct professor at the University of Galway's Irish Centre for Human Rights.[12][13] In 2025, She was named as Woman Lawyer of the Year by the Irish Women Lawyers Association (IWLA).[14]
