09/12/2025
TOMORROW is the big day! We are thrilled to announce our Chief Brehon, Niall Murphy!
Professor John Feerick, Former Dean at the School of Law, Fordham University.
Niall is a partner at KRW Law LLP, a leading human rights practice, based in Belfast.
The practice is instructed by a significant number of clients engaged in legacy litigation relating to conflict-related deaths and injuries, appearing for those bereaved as a result of atrocities such as Loughinisland, Claudy, Clonoe, Kingsmill, the Dublin-Monaghan and McGurks Bar Bombings, the Glenanne Gang series of killings, Ormeau Road Bookmakers, the 1974 Birmingham and Guildford Pub Bombings, amongst others. Niall is also instructed on behalf of several families to act in inquests which were closed on 1 May 2024 by the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. These inquests include the families of Bellaghy GAA chairman Sean Brown, the Springhill Massacre and the New Lodge 6. Niall is also instructed by the mother of Noah Donohoe at the pending inquest into Noah’s death.
Niall has a long and respected track record in criminal defence work, as part of the KRW Law criminal department. Niall is a qualified Advanced Advocate since 2005. Niall has conducted cases from the full range of criminal offences and has acted on behalf of defendants acquitted of the Northern Bank Robbery in 2004, the murders of two British soldiers at Massereene in 2009, the murder of Robert McCartney in 2005.
Niall also recently represented journalist Trevor Birney, who was arrested for a breach of the Official Secrets Act, following his landmark award winning documentary No Stone Unturned which exposed the depth and extent of state collusion in the atrocity at Loughinisland. Birney would later receive damages in excess of £ ¾ million, for his wrongful arrest and detention following a landmark judgment by the Lord Chief Justice, a judgement which has become an important legal authority upholding the rights of independent journalists and indeed the importance of investigative journalism and the freedom of speech in a modern democracy. Revelations at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal at the RCJ in London, have exposed an industrial scale surveillance operation by police against investigative journalists and lawyers which have led to calls for a Public Inquiry into the unlawful practice.
Niall has made representations at the European Parliament in Brussels, to the EU Human Rights Commissioner in Strasbourg and also to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva as well as having presented lectures to Universities in Washington, Pittsburgh, Jersey City, Fordham University New York and Harvard, Massachusetts.
Niall is the secretary and co-founder of Ireland’s Future an organisation which facilitates discussion and research towards the reunification of Ireland, in line with principles and processes as set out in the Good Friday Agreement. In April 2025, Niall conducted a series of meetings on Capitol Hill with Congressmen Richie Neal, Tim Kennedy, Brendan Boyle and Chris Smith, before heading to Philadelphia to introduce former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as Guest Speaker to an audience of 300 Irish American leaders at the Philadelphia Union League on the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement on 10th April 2025. In recent months Niall also has also addressed Irish communities in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Columbus and Cleveland Ohio.
Niall is also a Director of Belfast based NGO, Relatives for Justice and is a director of Brassneck Theatre Company, a Panel Member of the Human Rights Fund, an Honorary Chair of the Belfast International Homecoming and also sits on the Antrim GAA Human Resources Board. Niall is vice chairman of St Enda's GAC, Chairman of Club Aontroma and a founder and Governor of Gaelscoil Éanna, an Irish medium primary school in his home community of Glengormley.
