Blockchain and Irish Law
How Irish law treats digital assets, smart contracts and on-chain transactions in 2026 — and what the notarial profession does when the ledger and the ledger of record diverge.
Notary Public
Solicitor · Cork
Douglas, Cork, Ireland
The discipline of the notarial act.
Hugh Phelan is a Notary Public in Cork, appointed by the Chief Justice of Ireland and President of the Supreme Court — commissioned for life — and Principal of Phelan Solicitors.
Dual-qualified as a solicitor in Ireland and in England & Wales, with more than twenty years of corporate, commercial and international experience behind every notarial act.
Office
Douglas
East Douglas Street, Cork. Same-day appointments often available.
Commissioned
For life
By the Chief Justice of Ireland and President of the Supreme Court.
Qualified in
Twojurisdictions
Solicitor — Ireland and England & Wales.
Experience
20years +
Corporate, commercial and international.
01
The brief
A notarial practice built on the conventional disciplines of corporate and commercial law — and a long working interest in how new technologies change the legal framework around them.
Phelan Solicitors is one of the leading solicitor firms in Cork. Hugh's notarial work focuses on cross-border corporate transactions, apostille and consular legalisation, power-of-attorney work for overseas use, and the increasing volume of notarial work generated by Brexit and by globally-mobile professionals based in Munster.
The discipline is conservative. The reading is not.
02
Two practice columns
The notarial. The commercial.
The first is a public office of authentication. The second is the corporate and commercial practice that supports it. Both are run from the same Douglas office, by the same person.
Column I
Notarial practice
Notary Public — Cork
A complete notary public service: notarisation, apostille, consular legalisation, power-of-attorney work, corporate notarial services for foreign companies establishing Irish operations. Same-day appointments often available.
Column II
Solicitor practice
Corporate & Commercial
Company law, commercial conveyancing, commercial litigation, cross-border business transactions. Twenty years of experience behind the corporate side of the practice — and behind every corporate notarial act.
03
Articles
Two long-form articles.
Substantial pieces on the way new technologies meet Irish law — written from the practitioner's perspective, not the commentator's.
04
In practice
Counsel to the IMPT executive.
Hugh provides legal counsel to the executive of IMPT — a Dublin-headquartered travel, retail and carbon platform operating in 195 countries with on-chain carbon credit retirement on Ethereum and a native token. The work covers commercial transactions, corporate structuring, and the specific notarial and legal questions a token-issuing global platform presents.
The CEO of IMPT is Michael English. The Chief Financial Officer is Lorna Mason, whose own framework for blockchain and AI in the finance function complements the legal framework that runs alongside it.
05
Blog
Working notes — twenty posts.
Ten on the notarial office and how it actually works in Cork. Ten on the corporate and commercial questions a working Irish business has to resolve.
06
Contact
For notarial appointments and legal enquiries.
Phelan Solicitors, East Douglas Street, Douglas, Co. Cork, Ireland · Mon–Fri 9:00–17:00