The Gazette 1973

The Annual General Meeting The President took the chair at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday 23 November 1972 in the Library of Solicitor's Building. The notice convening the meeting and the minutes of the ordinary general meeting held on 18th May 1972 were deemed read and the minutes were confirmed and signed.

accordance with the scrutineers' report. On the motion of Mr. Prentice seconded by Mr. John O'Carroll the audited accounts and balance sheets for the year ended 30th April 1972 circulated with the agenda were adopted. The President signed the accounts. On the motion of Mr. Prentice seconded by Mr. John O'Carroll, Messrs Cooper Brothers & Co. were reappointed as auditors to the Society. The President moved the adoption of the Report of the Council for the year 1972 and addressed the meeting as follow^: Ladies and Gentlemen, You have all, no doubt, read the annual report of the Council for the year 1972 which was circulated with the agenda for this meeting. This report gives a compre- hensive summary of the work of the Society during the year and while I feel there is little to add to it I should like to deal with certain topics in somewhat greater detail. Education If our system of legal education is such that at the end of their term of apprenticeship our Law Students are mere technicians and nothing more, then we have failed in the duty we owe Society by not equipping our students with the training and discipline that would give us men and women skilled not only in their professional knowledge but also equipped with minds trained to think independently and so form their own judgments; trained to evaluate what should be ac- cepted and what should be rejected out of hand; trained not to swallow hook, line and sinker every assertion by Public or Local Authorities that what they propose must necessarily be for the public good; trained to protect the rights and interests of the private citizen against encroachment by the State; trained to appre- ciate the defects and injustices of the Society we live in, and trained not to be content to sit back and leave to his fellow men the righting of every wrong. That is the whole man; that is the "Man for all Seasons". But this is not the sort of man we are turning out under our present system of legal education. Ever since 1961 when we placed our recommendations before the Com- mission on Higher Education, my predecessors in office have pressed for the implementation of these recom- mendations. The Ormrod Report which in its con- clusions and recommendations was almost a photo- copy of our own, came out almost two years ago, and although that Report seemed to commend itself to our Minister for Justice, we still have no progress to report. Surely it is within the competence of the Departments of Education and Justice to prescribe that the Law Society shall be entitled to refuse to admit any student to our Law School until he has first acquired a Uni- versity Law Degree, or a Degree in some other dis- cipline. Freed from the responsibility of providing lec- tures in academic subjects, our Society could devote its 4

The Secretary read the report of the Scruitineers of the ballot of the Council for the year 1972/73. REPORT OF THE SCRUT INEERS OF THE BALLOT BALLOT FOR THE COUNCIL 1972-1973 A meeting of the scrutineers appointed at the Ordinary General Meeting of the Society held on 18th May 1972 together with the ex-officio scrutineers was held on 24th October 1972 at 1 o'clock. Nominations for ordinary membership of the Council were received from 34 candidates all of which were declared valid and the scrutineers directed that their names be placed on the ballot paper. The following candidates were duly nominated as provincial delegates in accordance with bye-law 29(a) of the Society and were returned unopposed. Ulster John C. O'Carroll Munster ... Dermot G. O'Donovan (Jnr.) Leinster Christopher Hogan Connaught Patrick J. McEllin A meeting of the scrutineers was held on Thursday 16th November 1972 at 11 o'clock. The poll was con- ducted from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. and the scrutiny was subsequently held. The result of the ballot was as follows. 636 envelopes containing ballot papers were received from members. The valid poll was 636. The following candidates received the number of votes placed after their names : Patrick Noonan (473); Eunan McCarron (470); John Carrigan (458); Mrs. Moya Quinlan (458); Patrick C. Moore (451); William A. Osborne (439); Anthony E. Collins (434); Francis J. Lanigan (432); James W. O'Donovan (431); Brendan A. McGrath 428); Bruce St. J. Blake (426); Walter Beatty (424); Gerald Hickey (417); Robert McD. Taylor, 414); Peter D. M. Prentice 413); Joseph L. Dundon (409); Senator J. J. Nash (408); Ralph J . Walker (408); James R. C. Green (395); Laurence Cullen (393); Thomas V. O'Connor (393); William B. Allen (391); Thomas J. Fitzpatrick (389); John Maher (382); Peter E. O'Connell (377); George A. Nolan (363); Gerard M. Doyle (359); David R. Pigot (348); Patrick McEntee (346); John B. Jermyn (345); Michael P. Houlihan, 336). The foregoing candidates were returned as ordinary members of the Council for the year 1972/1973. The following candidates also received the number of votes placed after their names : Patrick F. O'Donnell (334); Norman T. J . Spendlove (312); Frank O'Mahony (277(. The President declared the result of the ballot in