John Tirel, or Tyrell (died 1395) was a prominent judge and statesman in fourteenth-century Ireland who held office as Serjeant-at-law and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.
[3] The position of Serjeant then was an onerous one, and on occasion involved physical danger, since English rule in Ireland was insecure, and long journeys were hazardous.
Tirel was designated justice for Carlow in 1389, and ordered to proceed there to hear a wide variety of civil and criminal cases, but whether or not he did so is unknown.
[5] As Chief Justice, he was present at the Council meeting in September 1386 when Sir John Stanley, the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland read out the letters patent for his appointment.
[1] Like many Irish judges of the period he was reluctant, on grounds of safety, to go on assize, particularly to Carlow, where the royal courts were based: in 1380 Walter Cotterell, his successor as King's Serjeant, was deputised by the Privy Council to act in his place as judge of assize for Munster, Kilkenny and Wexford, "on account of the dangers of the roads".