About Us

The Coroner is an official charged with the legal responsibility for investigating sudden, unexplained and unnatural deaths in his or her district.

Coroners in the District of Dublin are appointed by the Minister of Justice.

A Coroner is independent in his or her function. The Coroner acts on behalf of the State in the public interest. Although the office has important medical functions, it is a legal office.

The public policy underlining a Coroner’s inquest into deaths was identified in November, 1999 by the Irish Supreme Court in the case of Dublin City Coroner v The Attorney General. In its judgement the Supreme Court said that few would dispute the need to have a public inquiry by a person with appropriate legal or medical qualifications into the death of a person as a result of violence or in circumstances that render such an investigation appropriate.

In the case, the Supreme Court also enunciated a number of public interest duties of the Coroner:

  • To determine the medical cause of death;

  • To allay rumour or suspicion;

  • To draw attention to the existence of circumstances which, if un-remedied, might lead to further deaths;
  • To advance medical knowledge;
  • To preserve the legal interests of the deceased person’s family, heirs or other interested parties.

Our history

In Dublin, the two Provosts who were responsible to the exchequer as accountants for the Royal rental, exercised the powers of a Coroner from 1215.

In 1292, the two Provosts were succeeded by two Bailiffs for the City of Dublin. Under the Laws and Usages of the City of Dublin, which were drawn up around the year 1316, it was confirmed that the Bailiffs were to act as Coroners at inquests in cases of death within the boundaries of the city. In 1548 Dublin City was shired under a charter issued by King Edward VI. This meant that the city was now equal in status to a county, and for legal purposes, it was known as “the county of the city of Dublin”. The two Bailiffs were replaced by two Sheriffs, who continued to exercise the powers of a Coroner until 1617.

In the early years, Dublin City sheriffs were barred from acting as Coroners by a Court of King’s Bench ruling, with records destroyed in 1922.

Coroners became elected aldermen, and later, four were appointed in 1687. Post-1691, two aldermen resumed the role. In 1901, the Coroner’s Court and City Morgue were built on Store Street, refurbished in 2008-2010. The old morgue was replaced by a new facility at Griffith Avenue in 2017. In 2011, Dublin’s two Coroner jurisdictions merged, and in 2018, oversight shifted to the Department of Justice. Since 2020, there are four Coroners for Dublin.