The Gazette 1978

JULY-AUGUST

197

GAZETTE

THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF BLACKHALL PLACE

purposes. This beautiful building now made new is a metaphor for what I feel should be our view of our legal system, and our profession. The basic fabric has stood for 200 years, and still fulfills the purpose for which it was first conceived by Thomas Ivory. The interior has been modified and improved so as to preserve all that is good, and remove all that has outlived its usefullness or decayed. This is surely the quintessence of conservation where what is old and beautiful can still remain modern and functional. Before inviting An Taoiseach to speak to you I would like, on behalf of the Society, to pay tribute to those who have played a special part in this project. Paddy Noonan, who was President in 1968, and his Council deserve special praise for their courage. One man must be singled out for special mention as the one who had the foresight to identify these premises, I refer of course to Peter Prentice. Having taken the initial step of acquiring the premises for £110,000, our courage failed us for the time being when we considered the cost of refurbishing. During this pause, we succeeded in clearing the initial debt, and accumulated a further £200,000 towards the work. Since the work recommenced, our members have contributed, or pledged close to £400,000, and I am confident that before long our target figure of £600,000 wffi be achieved. We are grateful to our Bankers, the Bank of Ireland, who have provided us with the necessary bridging finance to proceed with the project. So far as the building work is concerned, we are deeply grateful to our Architect, Terry Nolan and to his associate, Leonard Morgan, and to his team of consultants, Messrs. J. V. Tierney & Co. and Thomas D'Arcy & Co. We were fortunate in securing the services of our main contractors, Messrs. G. & T. Crampton, and their various sub-contractors, and also of our Clerk of Works, Mr. Reburn. They can all take pride, as we do, in their achievement in the preservation and renovation of this building, not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of the people of this City and our Country. I would also like to thank particularly Mr. Desmond Clarke, of the Royal Dublin Sociaty, who advised us on Library Design, and Aidan Prior and Brian Coyle, who helped us to choose the furnishings; Lee Kidney, who advised us on catering arrangements, and Cert., who also assisted us in the design of our kitchens. In conclusion, I would like to pay particular tribute to all the members of the Premises Committee of the Council, which planned and supervised to completion the project, and most especially to my Junior Vice President, Moya Quinlan, who as Chairman of that Committee devoted more time and effort to the detail of the project than any other individual member of the Council. Mr. Dundon then called on An Taoiseach, Mr. Jack Lynch who addressed the audience and perfromed the official opening ceremony.

MR. JOSEPH DUNDON, on tha occasion of tha Official Opanlng of Tha Incorporated Law Society's New Premises at Blackball Place, Dublin on Wednesday 14th June 1978 I have great pleasure, on behalf of the Society, in welcoming all of you to the official opening of the new home of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland. This day marks the completion of what must surely be one of the greatest undertakings in the 126 years of the history of the Society. These beautiful premises will provide the members of the Society with an administrative headquarters, a law school, and a meeting place for all occasions and purposes. In particular, they will provide facilities for a law school run on the most modern lines, which we are quite confident will meet fully the demands of the Irish people for the services which this profession will continue to provide on an increasing scale during the last decades of this century and on into the nex t . .. Our critics, for their own reasons, choose to ignore the fact that this is a young, vigorous and growing profession, which has increased steadily in numbers from 1300 in 1964 to over 2000 today, and on our projections (which we have published, and which remain uncontradicted) to over 3000 by 1986. I should not however be taken as suggesting that, having achieved our immediate goal of providing the physical surroundings in which to provide for the future education of the profession and its administration, that we should rest on our laurels. There is much work to be done. The Public, quite properly, make new and greater demands of us. Our changing society poses new problems; A wide spectrum of legal problems associated with changing attitudes to the family and marriage; a more sophisticated demand for specialized services arising from a more prosperous agriculture and a larger industrial sector; a whole new dimension of E.E.C. law—complex problems of labour law arising from new legislation, and the intractable problems of job creation for our predominantly young population. We are ready and willing to play our part in tackling all these problems, and this Society will give all the assistance in its power to its members in providing them with continuing education both in law and in modern business methods . . . The investment made by our profession in the provision of these new premises is our vote of confidence in the future of the profession and of our Country. We believe that the economy of the country benefits greatly from an efficient system of administration of the Courts and of the offices associated with land registration and taxation, and I appeal to the Government to recognize this by devoting the necessary resources to the provision of premises, staff and equipment for these

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