The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE MWH DECEMBER 1993

from which they are derived future adjustments may be more readily grasped. There are currently six Adoption Acts in force, the 1952 Act remaining the principal one. Practitioners will find part three of this book very useful as it contains annotated Acts and Statutory Instruments in force at 31 July, 1992. This part of the book draws together "live" statutory provisions and the ! most important related Statutory Instruments. It does this by ; consolidating the entire body of adoption legislation in to a working version of the "Principal Act" while Í appending both the Adoption Rules ! 1991 (SI 247/1991) and the Rules of the Superior Courts (No. 1), 1991. In summary this book is a useful | addition to the practitioner's library. It is written by an author who has a | background of legal training with social work experience. Part one of this book whets but does not entirely satisfy the appetite of the legal practitioner while parts two and three J perform an invaluable service and are | certainly of considerable benefit. As acknowledged in the foreword, the book draws together and sets out in a clear form the Acts as amended.

The boys may very well be at the top of their careers and fulfilled, but what about the girls? They may be fulfilled, but, if they are to pursue their careers, ; with the same success as the boys, will it be in spite of the system rather than because of it? Oak Tree Press, Dublin, recently published Gender and The Law in Ireland which is edited by Alpha Connelly and does to some extent deal with the many reasons why these two girls will not find their career path easy. it affects women. There are eleven articles, in all, and a foreword by The Hon Ms Justice Mella Carroll. These articles which are written by various different women with an interest in womens' affairs, include articles on the j Constitution by the editor Alpha Connelly, the Legislative process by Yvonne Galligan , Labour Law by Irene Lynch, Social Welfare Law by Aileen \ Donnelly, Family Law by Nuala Jackson, Criminal Law by Caroline ! Fennell, Censorship and the Media by Mary Kelly and Women in the Legal Profession by the editor and Betty Hilliard. j ! The article on the Constitution by I Alpha Connelly illustrates that the I Constitution has not kept pace with social change, but then how could it; it has not been revised except for certain ! specific amendments in 56 years. The issues dealt with in that article are: voting and elections, citizenship, jury service, contraception, termination of pregnancy, parenthood, responsibility in criminal matters, employment, property, taxation and social welfare. The article opines that one of the values to which Irish society subscribes is that of equality of the sexes but states that an examination of "the Irish Constitution and of its interpretation by the Irish Courts shows that there is a mismash between some of the provisions of the Constitution and the attainment of that goal". Reading the part of the article which deals with the development of the right to privacy in the Constitution The book contains a series of articles on various aspects of the law and how

which in fact derives from the right to contraception, it now seems hard to imagine that a woman had to bring an action as far as the Supreme Court to have such a right vindicated. A famous Irish solution to an Irish problem. Another section of this chapter deals with termination of pregnancy and deals with the relatively topical cases of "X" -v- the Attorney General and the Attorney General -v- Open Door Counselling and Others. I suppose one sees another Irish solution to an Irish problem in that the law has dealt with the issue on the basis of "shall not limit freedom to travel between this State and another State". Part of this article deals with jury service and it is now hard to believe that even as late as the mid 1970s, a woman was not automatically called for jury service, but had to apply to have her name inserted on the jury list. Maybe we have progressed. Another interesting section on the Constitution and Parenthood deals with the evolution of cases in relation to guardianship and the rights of unmarried fathers. The conclusions of this article point out the anomalies which have arisen over the years in that while womens' political rights to vote and to stand for election are guaranteed, the reality of the treatment of women in relation to parenthood and employment does make these rights somewhat superfluous. The article argues that the Constitution needs amending and revamping. In the chapter on Labour Law, Irene Lynch deals with the drawbacks which women have suffered in the world of work and she blames particularly the marriage bar in the Civil Service and various attitudes of people towards working women. She deals with the history of employment legislation, brought in in the 1970s to improve the lot of workers and in particular women, and deals in a very interesting way with many of the cases that were brought before the Employment Appeals Tribunal and to Court in the intervening years. However, her

| Rosemary Horgan

Gender and the Law in Ireland

Edited by Alpha Connelly, Oak Tree Press, Dublin, 1993, £14.95 Softback.

During August the Leaving Certificate results were published and in September, places in various third level colleges were allocated to our bright young students. I watched this with great interest as I knew of four young people who had sat the exam, two girls and two boys. The girls got very good results with very high points and the boys also did well, but their points were not quite as good. They have all been allocated places in third level education. However, it did give me pause for thought as to where these bright young teenagers will be in 25 years time.

conclusions are somewhat pessimistic in that she feels that this legislation is (Continued on page 407)

403