Writing on Irish probate
Twenty articles in four collections, written from practice: how farms, contested wills, executors and cross-border estates are actually dealt with in Irish probate.
Succession, intestacy on the land, estate sales and the farming heir.
How section 117 claims play out in farm estates: the moral duty test against lifetime provision, defending the succession plan and the evidence that decides these cases.
What happens when a farmer dies without a will in Ireland: the statutory shares, the successor's position, family arrangements and estoppel claims.
How estate sales of farmland work in Ireland: the personal representative's authority, family purchasers, marketing and valuation discipline, and title problems that surface at contract.
Dealing with scheme entitlements, livestock, machinery and co-op shares in Irish estates: valuation, interim management and transfer to successors.
Rights of residence, life interests and section 56 appropriation: how Irish farm estates provide for a surviving spouse while the land passes to the successor.
Capacity, undue influence, caveats, defending executors and costs.
Testamentary capacity disputes in Ireland: the classic legal test, medical records and expert evidence, the golden rule for elderly testators and how capacity cases are actually proved.
Undue influence challenges to Irish wills: what must be proved, the fact patterns courts recognise, and how it differs from capacity and want of knowledge and approval.
How caveats work in Irish probate: lodging, warnings and appearances, when a caveat is the right move, and the costs risk of lodging one without grounds.
Acting for executors under attack: answering complaints of delay and partiality, the protective power of documentation, and when to seek the court's directions.
How costs work in Irish contested probate: the traditional exceptions, when the estate pays, when losers pay, and how costs discipline should shape strategy.
The executor's year, the SA.2, assents, renunciation and personal applications.
The executor's year in Irish probate: why beneficiaries cannot compel early distribution, what duties still run from day one, and when delay stops being reasonable.
When a personal probate application makes sense in Ireland and when it does not: the personal application process, its limits, and the estates that genuinely need professional handling.
The Statement of Affairs (Probate) Form SA.2 in Irish estates: what it contains, the information executors must gather, and why accuracy at this stage governs everything after.
How land passes from an estate to beneficiaries in Ireland: the assent, registration, first registration triggers, and the title problems administrations should fix rather than pass on.
Renunciation of executorship in Ireland: how and when to renounce, why intermeddling closes the door, reserving rights among multiple executors, and the estates where refusal is wisdom.
Two-grant estates, foreign executors, will trusts and digital assets.
Administering estates with assets in both Ireland and Britain: which grant leads, proving the will twice, moving funds between administrations and the post-Brexit practicalities.
How executors and administrators living outside Ireland extract Irish grants: documents executed abroad, administration by correspondence, and the practical points that cause delay.
Grants de bonis non and second grants in Irish probate: what happens when a personal representative dies mid-administration, the chain of executorship, and unadministered estates behind farm titles.
Discretionary will trusts for children and adults with disabilities in Ireland: why direct gifts can harm, how the trust is structured, and the trustees' long duties.
Administering digital assets in Irish estates: online accounts and platforms, cryptocurrency, access and succession problems, and what testators should record now.