Star human rights barrister, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, and her Mayo ties

Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh recently made headlines for her gripping closing arguments at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where she argued South Africa's case against Israeli forces over the genocide in Gaza.

Born in Ireland, the barrister spent her early years around the town of Glencalry, Glenamoy before the family moved to London. The clan led a classic London-Irish lifestyle, often travelling back to Ireland during the summer. Despite living across the pond for years, Ní Ghrálaigh's Irish identity remained strong. Her name echos Bláthnaid (flower), and her Gaelicised surname, Ní Ghrálaigh (Grealy), reflect this identity.

Her family's homestead provided a backdrop to her upbringing, a period marked by the warmth of Irish culture and the values instilled by her mother, Neasa.

Neasa, who eventually became the deputy head teacher of Tufnell Park Primary School in London, raised both of her daughters, Blinne and her sister, with a focus on strength, determination, and a keen sense of social justice.

Despite living in north London's Holloway later in life, Ní Ghrálaigh's Irish identity remained strong. 

Additionally, Ní Ghrálaigh is fluent in the Irish language, and engrossed in Irish dancing and music, all due to her cultural upbringing by her Mayo born mother Neasa.

Interest in justice and human rights is deeply embedded in the family's history. Ní Ghrálaigh's journey into the legal world began following her work on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in London, however the roots of her career go much further back. Ms Ní Ghrálaigh told Rosemary Gallagher of Irish Legal News, that when she was 12 years old, she “found a pamphlet about Majella O'Hare'', a 12-year-old schoolgirl who was shot in the back by a British paratrooper while walking to church in Whitecross, in August 1976. Ní Ghrálaigh explains how she “saw the picture of the young girl on the front, and saw her age, and I read it from cover to cover.” The fact that nobody had been held accountable, and the circumstances of the killing “particularly outraged [her] convent school-girl sensibilities at the time.”

Ms Ní Ghrálaigh went to her mother in tears and asked how such a terrible thing could be allowed to happen. Her mother’s response to her young daughter was: “Do something about it”. Ms Ní Ghrálaigh says these “words struck a very profound chord.”. The very same pamphlet is framed above her desk to this day “as a reminder” of what brought her to where she is today.

Since joining Matrix (a barristers' chambers in London), she has become a leading figure in the field, specialising in human rights, public international law, criminal law, and public law.

Her recent high-profile case at the ICJ, has brought her international acclaim. She stated that the current ongoings in Gaza is "the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time in the desperate so far vain hope that the world might do something." The poignancy of this reality was portrayed excellently by Ní Ghrálaigh.

Her stunning closing argument made waves on social media, with many users expressing their pride in being Irish following Ni Ghrálaigh’s deliverance.

See her argument in full here.