The Gazette 1994

GAZETTE

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1994

Ch i ef Jus t i ce Thomas Finlay - An App r ec i a t i on

Chief Justice Finlay is the seventh person since the foundation of the State to have occupied that great office. Yet he is also the only one of those seven to have been born since the foundation of the State. Two of his predecessors died in office. Two others resigned to become judges in the Court of Justice of the European Communities. Another resigned on the grounds of ill-health before reaching the compulsory retirement age. Only Chief Justice Finlay and the late Chief Justice Conor Maguire remained in office until reaching that age. Happily Chief Justice Maguire lived for many years after his retirement. We all wish the present Chief Justice a long and happy life after his retirement age which he reaches on September 17 this year. In the course of my judicial career I had the privilege of serving with five of the seven Chief Justices, my last five years being spent with Chief Justice Finlay. I also had had the pleasure of being a colleague at the Bar from the time of his call to the Bar until my own departure from it. All my association with him, both at the Bar and on the Bench, has been most happy and richly rewarding in terms of personal relationship as well as in terms of professional relationship. My experience was one which was also true of all those numerous persons who worked with him in the many spheres of activity which engaged his attention and included the cultural and the charitable and others far removed from the practice and development of the law and the administration of justice. His near inexhaustible patience and his unfailing courtesy in all situations are too well known to require any elaboration. His skill as an advocate was recognised throughout the legal profession and by those members of the public who had the good fortune to have been represented by him as

1987, on the operation of the Constitution of Ireland, in speaking of the rapid, ready and unhesitating acceptance by the legal profession of the concept of the primacy of the Constitution he said "even the most cursory examination of the broad outline of the Constitution shows good reason why this acceptance should have been so rapid and so ready. Firstly, in relation to personal liberty it is difficult to conceive a more simple, ready and effective remedy for unlawful detention than the right to apply under Article 40 of the Constitution to any Judge of the High Court for an inquiry as to the legality of your detention. Here you have an express, unequivocal access to the Courts, unhindered by any form of procedural blockage or red tape . . . without any formality at all and it frequently consists only of a terse written communication addressed to the Judge . . . it can be established by a lay person with a bona fide interest (where the detained person) cannot himself or herself make the application." He furthermore stressed that the immediate effect of the Constitution is not even confined to the Courts "but is applicable to all forms of subsidiary or administrative tribunals who must, in the course of their activities, act in a Constitutional manner, observing fair procedures." The "Finlay" Court furnished ample proof of the truth of these statements. While lamenting the end of this too brief era let us recall the words of Seneca - "felix est cui quantulumcunque temporis contigit, bene collocatum est." Let us recall that away from the Bench Tom Finlay is a Brother of the Angle. For those who love any discourse of rivers and fish and fishing, he is the man. He is doubly worthy of Izaak Walton's dish of meat

The Hon Mr Thomas Finlay, Chief

Justice,

who retires on September

17.

well as by those who had the ill-luck to be opposed by him in litigation especially in jury trials. He had the all too rare gift of being able to reduce the points at issue to the essential few and to refrain from that form of advocacy which allocates equal weight to all points thus causing the good ones to sink to the level of the less than good. Incidentally, it is worth recalling that in his busy "junior" days Tom Finlay was elected to the Dáil at his first attempt. This was a remarkable feat in a Dublin city constituency. He served very effectively for three years as a Deputy but did not offer himself for re- election. No doubt if he had devoted himself to a political career he would have risen very high indeed but it is safe to say, without disrespect to the other organs of government, nothing in those spheres would have surpassed his achievements in the judicial organ of government to the well-nigh everlasting benefit of the consumers of justice. As a judge, and particularly as Chief Justice, he has been the stalwart defender of our liberties and rights. In a remarkable address delivered by him in the Supreme Court in the presence of President Hillery on 29 December

that was "too good for any but anglers, or very honest men."

Brian Walsh

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