Charles Lysaght (born 23 September 1941) is an Irish lawyer, biographer, obituarist and occasional columnist.
Lysaght was born in Dublin on 23 September 1941. He was educated at St Michael's College, Dublin and Gonzaga College. He read law and economics at University College Dublin (M.A), and at Christ's College, Cambridge (M.Litt). He qualified as a barrister at the King's Inns, Dublin, and then at Lincoln's Inn, London. A keen student debater he won the inaugural Irish Times Debate for university debating (1960-1) and the gold medal of the Literary and Historical Society in University College Dublin (1961-2). He was elected auditor of the law students debating society of Ireland, King's Inns (1961-2)[1] and president of The Cambridge Union (Easter term 1964), defeating Vince Cable by a large majority.[2]
Since 1969 he has written Irish obituaries for The Times of London.[5]
A keen cricketer, he played for Pembroke Cricket Club, County Meath, the Cambridge Crusaders, the Refreshers and the Leprechauns, a nomadic club of which he was president in 1998, its 50 anniversary year.[6]
He was first chairman of the Cambridge Society Irish branch and is now chairman of the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Ireland.[7]
He married Alyson Gavin, genealogist, in 2019.[8]
Lysaght has also written articles for learned journals on law and contributed entries to the Dictionary of Irish Biography. He has written forewords to several books and contributes obituaries, articles and book reviews to newspapers and other journals.