Blog

Plain-English guides to Irish inheritance law — written for the person the will forgot, the beneficiary kept waiting, and the family watching an estate freeze.

Provision Claims

How Section 117 Claims Work

The moral-duty test, from the standpoint of a prudent and just parent.

Provision Claims

The Section 117 Six-Month Time Limit

The cruellest deadline in Irish law - and why the grant date is everything.

Provision Claims

Adult Children’s Inheritance Claims

Independence doesn’t bar the claim - the whole picture decides.

Provision Claims

The Disinherited Spouse

The legal right share: the entitlement no will can defeat.

Provision Claims

Cohabitant Inheritance Rights

No automatic share - but a real redress scheme on an urgent clock.

Provision Claims

Stepchildren & Blended Family Estates

Second marriages, competing claims, and the disputes they generate.

Validity

Testamentary Capacity & Dementia

A diagnosis begins the inquiry - the records and the will file answer it.

Validity

Proving Undue Influence

Coercion, circumstance, and the suspicious-circumstances doctrine.

Validity

DIY & Homemade Wills: The Failure Patterns

Where kitchen-table wills die - witnesses, formalities, alterations.

Validity

Lost Wills & Copies

The presumption of destruction, and how copies get admitted to proof.

Validity

Marriage Revokes a Will

The least-known rule in Irish succession law rewrites estates regularly.

Executors

The Executor Won’t Distribute

The executor’s year, the duties, and the letter that moves most estates.

Executors

Removing an Executor

When and how the court replaces a personal representative.

Executors

Executor Duties & Risks

The fiduciary job description - and the personal liability behind it.

Executors

How Long Probate Takes in Ireland

The honest 2026 timeline: assembly, the office, administration.

Executors

Why Probate Applications Get Rejected

Jurats, name inconsistencies - and the queue place rejection costs.

Disputes

Caveats: Stopping a Grant

The emergency brake - and the fourteen-day clock behind it.

Disputes

Who Pays the Costs of Inheritance Disputes?

The probate costs traditions, honestly stated - protection for reasonable challenges only.

Disputes

Mediation in Inheritance Disputes

Why family estate fights mediate better than almost anything in law.

Disputes

Joint Bank Accounts on Death

Survivorship or convenience? The name on the account never ends it.