George Birmingham

On 24 April 2018, the Government of Ireland nominated Birmingham to be President of the Court of Appeal. As President of the Court of Appeal, he is an ex officio member of the Supreme Court of Ireland.

On 3 May 2007, it was announced that he had been selected to become a High Court judge. In October 2014, he became a judge of the Court of Appeal.

He served as chairperson of the Censorship of Publications Appeals Board. He was appointed to chair the Advisory Group on Criminal Law and Procedure in 1996 by Minister for Justice Nora Owen.

Birmingham lost his Dáil seat at the 1989 general election.

He resumed his career as a barrister in 1989, becoming a Senior Counsel in 1999. He practised extensively in criminal law, prosecuting on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions. He represented injured fans in relation to the Lansdowne Road football riot. He appeared for the DPP in the trials of Michael McKevitt in the Special Criminal Court in 2003 and Linda and Charlotte Mulhall in 2006.

Fine Gael lost power following the 1987 general election, but he was reelected to the Dáil despite he and constituency colleague Richard Bruton only achieving 24% of the vote combined. He was appointed Fine Gael spokesperson for Labour by Alan Dukes in 19867 and subsequently Education in 1988. He proposed that injunctions restraining strikes should be not be held ex parte and that unofficial strikes should be banned. In March 1988 he introduced the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Bill 1988, an unsuccessful private members' bill, into the Dáil, to change the time limits for personal injuries.

In February 1986, he transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs to be become Minister of State with special responsibility for European Affairs and Development Co-operation. He was replaced as Minister of State for Youth Affairs by Enda Kenny. The government at the time considered created a cabinet-level rank of Minister for European Affairs for Gemma Hussey to coordinate EEC affairs, but instead opted to appoint Birmingham to a Minister of State position. Some EEC business was delegated by the Minister for Foreign Affairs to Birmingham. He travelled to Lusaka later that year for discussions with the African National Congress.

Between 1982 and 1987, he served as a Minister of State under Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald. He was first appointed a Minister of State for Youth Affairs at the Department of Labour in December 1982, with additional duties at the Department of Education from December 1983. In 1983 in the Dáil, he defended the wording of the then proposed Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland on behalf of the government, specifically to ensure that the Supreme Court of Ireland could not discover an unenumerated right to abortion.

Birmingham's attracted nomination political controversy, in light of his time as a Fine Gael TD and Minister of State during the 1980s.

Birmingham was elected to the national executive of Fine Gael in December 1976. He proposed a successful motion at the 1978 Fine Gael Ardfheis for the party to seek a referendum on divorce. He was first elected to office in 1979, topping the poll in his ward to become a Fine Gael member of Dublin Corporation for Raheny. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1981 general election as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin North-Central constituency. He was competing against Charles Haughey, Vincent Brady and Noël Browne. He was the Fine Gael spokesperson for urban affairs in 1982.

George Martin Birmingham (born 3 August 1954) is an Irish judge who has served as President of the Court of Appeal since April 2018 and a Judge of the Court of Appeal since October 2014. He previously served as a Judge of the High Court from 2007 to 2014, Minister of State for European Affairs from 1986 to 1987 and Minister of State for Youth Affairs from 1982 to 1986. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-Central constituency from 1981 to 1989.

Birmingham was born in Dublin in 1954. He was educated at St. Paul's College, Trinity College, Dublin and King's Inns, where he qualified as a barrister. He was called to the bar in November 1976.