[3] His early legal career involved representing clients in commercial,[4] criminal,[5] and labour law matters.

[7] He proposed a successful motion at the 1978 Fine Gael Ardfheis for the party to seek a referendum on divorce.

[13] In December 1982 he was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Labour with responsibility for youth affairs,[14] with additional duties as Minister of State at the Department of Education with responsibility for Co-ordination of Education and Training from December 1983.

[20] At the 1987 general election, Birmingham was re-elected to the Dáil despite he and constituency colleague Richard Bruton together polling only achieving 24% of the vote combined.

[21] Fine Gael lost office, and Birmingham was appointed party spokesperson for Labour by Alan Dukes in 1987 and subsequently Education in 1988.

[27] He appeared for the DPP in the trials of Michael McKevitt in the Special Criminal Court in 2003 and Linda and Charlotte Mulhall in 2006.

[30] He was appointed to chair the Advisory Group on Criminal Law and Procedure in 1996 by Minister for Justice Nora Owen.

[2] Birmingham's nomination attracted political controversy,[36][37] in light of his time as a Fine Gael TD and Minister of State during the 1980s.