header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us

Pat Finucane: justice denied?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All Rights Reserved.
21 January 2021 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7917 / Categories: Features , Criminal
printer mail-detail
36443
Jon Robins questions the government’s decision to rule out a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Pat Finucane

If ever there was an ‘activist lawyer’ (to use a 2020 neologism) it was Pat Finucane. At the end of last year Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis ruled out a public inquiry into state collusion in the murder of the human rights solicitor in 1989.

Born into a republican family from the Falls Road in Belfast, Pat Finucane was fully committed to the idea that everyone in his divided community deserved proper independent legal representation. The solicitor was as comfortable representing loyalist rioters hit by stray plastic bullets as their republican adversaries. As his widow, Geraldine, once put it: ‘Pat would have represented the people who shot him.’

Pat Finucane was shot 14 times in front of his wife and three children by loyalist gunmen who forced their way into his home. ‘One of the first times I saw my Dad on telly, he was being interviewed on the Six O’Clock

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: DNA evidence—justice on ice?
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
NLJ this week: Fraud claims climb as courts brace for AI threats
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
NLJ this week: Pro bono power without the red tape
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
NLJ this week: Trans pool player loses discrimination fight
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
NLJ this week: Traders’ convictions quashed in Libor shock
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll