Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC

Blinne is a human rights and international law expert with a broad criminal, civil and public law practice. She advises and acts for individuals, States, Non-Governmental Organisations, and other national and international bodies, arguing novel, complex and often high-profile points of law before domestic courts, including the Supreme Court, and before international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice.

Her domestic practice includes cases involving the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of protest, discrimination and equality, international law, environmental law, national security, prisons, police.

Blinne was nominated Public International Law Junior of the Year in 2022. She was shortlisted for Barrister of the Year in 2022, Crime Junior of the Year in both 2020 and 2021, and for Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year in 2021. She was Times Lawyer of the Week in January 2022 and Irish Legal News Barrister of the Month in February 2022 for her defence of one of protesters who toppled the statue of the slaver Edward Colston in Bristol.  She was appointed a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School in 2016, and a Pegasus Fellow to the Centre for Constitutional Right in New York in 2010.

She is called to the Bars of Ireland, North and South, in addition to the Bar of England and Wales. She is also on the International Criminal Court’s List of Counsel.

• Bar Human Rights Committee (former Vice Chair, current Executive Officer)
• Administrative Law Bar Association
• Criminal Bar Association
• Human Rights Lawyers Association

• BA (Modern and Medieval Languages) Queens’ College, Cambridge (First Class Honours) Graduate Diploma in Law, University of Westminster (Distinction)
• Bar Vocational Course, Inns of Court School of Law (Outstanding)
• LLM International Legal Studies, New York University (equivalent Distinction)
• Visiting Fellowship, Harvard Law School (2015)

Fellowships and Awards

• Pegasus Scholarship, Inns of Court
• Phoenicia Scholarship, Bar European Group
• International Scholarship, Centre for Capital Punishment Studies
• Buchanan Prize, Lincoln’s Inn
• Bairstow Scholarship, ICSL
• St Thomas More Bursary, Lincoln’s Inn
• Lord Bowen Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn
• Hardwicke Award, Lincoln’s Inn
• Foundation Scholarship, Queen’s College, Cambridge University