The Gazette 1972

I IOBITUARY

1l10re than half a century in the legal and literary world. He could remember the time when the repository of Court files was in the gallery high in the dome above the round hall of the old Four Courts from which haskets of documents were lowered by ropes on pulleys when required in the various Courts. For some reason of indolence or diffidence his literary output was scat– tered and comparatively small but it had the quality of rarity. He once confided to the writer that writing excited but exhausted him. His memories included such varied characters as Joyce, Synge, Pallas, Kennedy and the survivors of the old and the progenitors of the new legal regime. His interests covered the fields of law literature, architecture and the pictorial art. Senior Counsel and doctor of literature, he adorned the pro– fession and if he had been bold enough to write his own epitaph it might be : Home sum; humani Nil amI: alienum puto. He did, however, leave a memorial which is of interest to llH'mbers of the legal profession in a contribution to the record of the centenary of the Society's charter in 1952. It is entitled "Figures in the Hall" and will he reproduced in the February Gazette. Con Curran, who died recently at the age of ninety years, was called to the Bar in 1910, and to the Senior Bar in 1935. He eventually became Registrar of the SupreTlle Court in 1946 and retired in 1952. He became a Doctor of Literature Honnri.r Causa of the National University of Ireland in 1949. We don't often blow our own trumpet about the help we cad: give to business. Indeed, we usually get on with the job without making a fuss about it. But things change. New situations develop. And we, as a leading merchant bank have to act accordingly. One such situation is Ireland's possible e,ltry into the Common Market. Another is the country's expanding expotl trade. There are more. So right now, businessmen need as much financial advice at! assistance as they can get. Hence th:! trumpet-blowing. We can give the advice. We ,~ give the assistance. And, along with our associate banks - Hambros and The Toronto-Dominion - we can help with any number of critical problemii. Problems like export financing; acceptance credits; ergetS; bridging finance; portfolio management; and a whole lot tll d So if you've got the kind of business that could use a good bank behind it - get in touch. Give us a ring at 778301, or drop a line to 5 College Green, Dublin 2. ®~I~U~~~~I)!oup nk In Ilssociation with Hambros Bank Limited, The Toron~ Dominion Bank and Irish Life Assurance Company LiJnll'

CONSTANTINE CURRAN, S.C., D.Liu.

An Appreciation

Con Curran as he was known to generations of solicitors was a familiar figure in the Four Courts where he worked for more than forty years until his retirement twenty years ago. There can be few if any members who still relllember him as a young clerk in the King's Bench Division where he commenced his career serving under the judges of the old regime. There he would have lllet solicitors who had heen admitted as attornies before the Judicature Act, 1875. To those like the writer who began practice in the thirties he was a beloved and respected figure. He belonged to a corps of experts who saved the sum of things when the heavens were falling hetween 1922 and 1924. I t is sometimes forgotten that to Curran and his colleagues the registrars, exallliners and officers of the Courts, even more almost than to the judges, belongs a credit of keeping a legal system in being during those momentuous years. The names of Phipps, Pilkington, Adderley, Healy and others were symbols of awe to the tyro. Con Curran always adopted the paternal approach with a mixture of expertise and humility. To a zealous practitioner who had diffidently pointed out a slip in a document which Curran had drafted he once said: "You seem to be the only person who ever reads mv orders." What a pity he left no lIlemoirs. His recollections lllust have included all the worthies and eccentrics of AIIB: Behind every ROOd business there'sa ROOd bank.

32