Lord Carswell death: Church of Ireland hails 'penetrating mind' of Northern Ireland's former top judge who spoke out against 'obstructive' EU and whom the IRA tried to incinerate

Current Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell and one of his successors, the Rt Revd the Lord Eames, issued a joint statement praising his character following his death on May 4.

Lord Carswell – whose Christian names were Robert Douglas – was the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2004, before becoming a crossbench (that is, non-partisan) member of the House of Lords from 2004 to retirement in 2019.

In the course of his career, he escaped a murder attempt by the IRA, who booby-trapped his car with explosives.

He was also highly-critical of Brussels and Dublin in the final years of his life over Brexit.

As well as his legal career, he had served as a chancellor of both the Diocese of Armagh and the Diocese of Down and Dromore.

Archbishop McDowell said: “Lord Carswell made a significant contribution to the administration of justice in Northern Ireland, during what were often difficult and extremely dangerous times.

“On top of an acute and penetrating legal mind, he had great administrative flair which made him both an ideal Lord Chief Justice and judge of the Supreme Court.

"In both his professional and his personal life, Lord Carswell’s civility and sense of fairness were always in evidence.”

In addition he “gave generously” of his time to the church, advising bishops and archbishops with “immense conscientiousness and cheerfulness”.

Archbishop McDowell concluded: “May his whole family know the peace and comfort of the God whom he served with such devotion.”

Lord Eames, a friend of Lord and Lady Carswell for many years (who was archbishop of Armagh from 1986 to 2006), said he was “a man of utmost integrity who contributed immensely to the public life of Northern Ireland not least in the dark hours of the Troubles”.

A former RBAI (Inst) pupil, who studied in Oxford and Chicago, he served as a barrister from 1957 to 1984, when he was made a judge.

– ‘I SPOTTED BOMB, BUT MY CLOSE FRIEND WAS INCINERATED’ –

In 2017, he told the House of Lords (during a debate on victims’ compensation): “The day before I was sworn in as a High Court judge, a booby-trap bomb was left under my car.

"By the grace of God, I saw it and I escaped. A very brave ammunitions technical officer risked his life to try to diffuse it and, unhappily, was only partly successful.

"The explosion took place and there was an immense amount of damage done to my car – which was a write-off – my house, the contents and, by way of after-effect, my wife’s health.

"I had to get on with my job, and happily I was able to do so. She was badly affected for a long time.

"A couple of years later, my very close friend and colleague, Maurice Gibson, was blown up in his car by a road-side bomb as he crossed the border with his wife.

"The car and its occupants were incinerated. The distress to his family, which I have seen close-up, can never be compensated sufficiently, but it should be registered and an attempt made.”

During a Lords discussion in 2018 about where Northern Ireland would stand after Brexit, he told fellow peers: “I say with regret that the approach of the EU negotiators to this issue has been rigid and intransigent to the point of being obstructive.

"I am equally sorry to say that the Government of the Republic have thrown themselves in line with that.”

On the subject of the Troubles, he said during that same debate: “The source of discontent leading to violence in the first place was nothing to do with the border and its arrangements.

"It was a wholly different fons et origo [origin]. I am not going to go into it now, but it was focused on discontent which had many sources and many problems in it from other directions.

"I am sorry to say that those who talk up the risk of a resumption of violence are misguided. It is an emotive argument, another ‘project fear’.”

A death notice for him says he died at home.

He was the “much loved husband of Romayne, father and grandfather”.

It adds: “Funeral for immediate family only. Memorial service later in the year.”

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