[1] He was the second son of Thomas Finlay, a politician and senior counsel whose career was cut short by his early death in 1932.
In 1985, Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and his government nominated him to the Supreme Court and the office of Chief Justice of Ireland.
When, in the same year, Judge Liam Hamilton of the High Court, chair of the Beef Tribunal, sought disclosure of the cabinet's minutes for a particular meeting, Chief Justice Finlay along with the majority of the Supreme Court denied the request ruling that the concept of collective government responsibility in the Constitution took precedence.
In 1996, he oversaw the inquiry into the violence by English fans at the aborted 1995 friendly soccer match versus the Republic of Ireland at Lansdowne Road.
Due to the wide remit and huge number of submissions the commission's report was delayed[10] but was eventually published at the end of July recommending widespread reforms.
[11][12][13] Following the discovery of the BTSB anti-D scandal, in 1996, Finlay was appointed the chair and singular member of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Blood Transfusion Service Board.