10 May 2023
Lord Carswell, the former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, has died aged 88.
Robert Carswell became a barrister in 1957 and took silk in 1971. In 1984, on the day before he was sworn in as a High Court judge, he had a narrow escape when an IRA bomb exploded beneath his car. He served as Lord Chief Justice from 1997 until 2004.
Outside of the law, he provided advice on the governance of the Church of Ireland. He was a cross-bencher in the House of Lords until 2019. Lord Carswell is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Lord Eames, former Archbishop of Armagh and friend of the family, paid tribute to ‘a man of utmost integrity who contributed immensely to the public life of Northern Ireland, not least in the dark hours of the Troubles’.
