John Moriarty (Attorney General)
John Francis Moriarty PC, QC (1855 – 2 May 1915) was an Irish lawyer and judge.
Background and education
Moriarty was born in Mallow, County Cork, the second son of John Moriarty, a successful solicitor, and his wife Ellen O'Connell. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and the University of Dublin, entered Middle Temple in 1875, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1877.
He married firstly Katherine Kavanagh and secondly Mabel Dolphin and had five children.
Legal and judicial career
Moriarty became Queen's Counsel in 1900, Third Serjeant in 1909 and First Serjeant in 1910. Despite a flourishing practice he was often in financial difficulties and went bankrupt in the 1890s. Although he supported the Liberals, unlike many of his colleagues he did not regard party politics as a path to advancement and showed little interest in acquiring a seat in the House of Commons, although he contemplated standing as member for Mallow in 1883. In 1913 he was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland, then Attorney-General for Ireland. In 1913 he was made a Lord Justice of the Irish Court of Appeal but served less than two years before dying in May 1915.