The Gazette 1996

DECEMBER 1996

GAZETTE

The Four Courts: hOl11e to the lavv for 200 years. Last month saw the two hundredth anniversary of the Four Courts as the In his opening address, Mr. Justice Hamilton said that very few buildings

Special Criminal Court. The Minister said it was an historic occasion and deserved to be marked by a special ceremony. "The Courts playa very important part in any democracy and the Irish people can be happy in the knowledge that our courts administer justice to all, without fear or favour, in accordance with the Constitution and the law", she said. The Four Courts had seen many changes in its 200 years, the Minister noted. 'On the evidence before our eyes', she concluded, 'the building will continue to serve the courts and the general public very well in tandem with the future development of the courts system' .

embodied a profession in the way the Four Courts did. And following a lecture on the building's history by Dr. Maurice Craig (see below), President Mary Robinson addressed the assembled guests. The best way to mark the celebration, she suggested, was to link the past to "the challenge of the new millennium". I Justice Nora Owen, who at that time was embroiled in a political row over the release and rearrest of 16 prisoners and her Department's failure to notify Judge Dominic Lynch of his removal from the Finally, it was the tum of Minister for

centre for justice in Ireland, and the event was marked by what the Irish Times called 'a party with a difference'. On the evening before the bicentennial celebrations, the Law Society held its own party at Blackhall Place, where the guest of honour was Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord Chancellor of England and Wales. The i photographs on the following pages should give a flavour of both occasions. The Four Courts celebration was hosted by the Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Hamilton, whose first duty was to welcome President Mary Robinson back to familiar ground. Mrs. Robinson began her~ legal career 'devilling' in the Four Courts in 1968. The other guests of honour included: Lord Mackay of Clashfern; the Lord President I of Scotland, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry; Sir Brian Hutton, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland; and Lord Bingham, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. The Minister for Justice and the American Ambassador were also present, as were a large number of judges, barristers, I solicitors, politicians and gardaf. The Law Society was represented by then President I Andrew F Smyth, incoming President Frank Daly, Director General Ken Murphy and a number of Council members. i it is the best, and certainly not the most I faultless. But it is the one which makes the biggest statement. As we all know, the courts sat for a couple of centuries very near here, in the shadow of Christ Church, the Four Courts of the King's Bench, Chancery, Exchequer and Common Pleas. And when, towards the end of the eighteenth century, it was at last decided to house them with greater dignity, they did not move very far; just acros~ the river and a few yards to the West. Ten years before the first stone of the Four Courts proper was laid, the building which is now the West Wing had been I begun, to the design of Thomas Cooley,

Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, being greeted by Mr Justice Liam Hamilton, Chief Justice, and Brendan Ryan, Administration Manager in charge of the Four Courts Building, on her arrival for the Bicentenary Celebrations on 8 November 1996. It was research by Brendan Ryan which identified 8 November 1796 as the date of the first ever court sittings in Gandon's new building.

Extract from address by Dr Maurice Craig on the history of the Four Courts "For my money the Four Courts is the grandest building in Dublin. I don' t say critics made fun of these. But they had their uses.

in 1776. It was designed to be the repository of the legal records and it was one of the very first government offices ever built in Ireland. So Gandon was not working on a blank sheet as he had been at the Custom House. Gandon's enemies mai ntained that the great drum-tower rising out of the central block was put up as a piece of self– glorification by the architect, and that it served no useful purpose. And of course they were quite right - at least in the second of those propositions. His enemies derided the elaborate geometric pattern of the planning of the central block. Setting the four courts at an angle of 45 degrees radiating out towards the corners resulted in a large number of small spaces being left over: octagons, small rectangles and triangles, and the

To begin with, the backs of all four of the courts were open towards the hall: that is to say, each alternate pair of columns was free-standing so that you could see straight into each court. I think this must deri ve from some primiti ve theory that j ustice must be seen to be done in the open, coram populo. But for practical reasons, this did not last long. All of this was blown to smithereens by the bombardment and the explosions of 1922. The Government, to its great credit, restored the Four Courts, as it did the Custom House and the GPO. This might well not have happened, but it did: and we should be eternally grateful for it" .

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