The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

C O

R R E S P O I M D E N C E

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1996

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Letter from Andrew Dillon , Solicitor.

for this day. One has to wonder why. Is it good for business or the ego or both? Frank Daly who scraped through by the skin of his teeth with the second lowest number of votes in the election, is obviously a popular choice for President next year. He too will be amazed and honoured to be elected in due course. Anyhow, I had the temerity to raise the committee issue at the appropriate time. I was informed by the President, Andy Smyth, that it was a well-known rule that only Council members with seniority were allowed to sit on Finance. After some dispute about this Mr Bruce Blake who reminded us that he had sat on the Council for 30 years (!) told us that it was a well-known tradition. So there you are! Tradition rules. The bloke who hung around for 18 years was elected President. He gets to choose who sits on what Committee. You elected me to try to help you and try to get stuck into a phase of renewal. Your President has tried to ensure that I shall have little or no opportunity to achieve anything. Council. Firstly, there is a similarity to being elected to the back benches of Parliament or alternatively, to obtaining Ministerial office, if one happens to be a Chairman of an important Committee. Once elected, the Council can decide to do more or less what it likes. Matters which can be, and indeed are, of great concern to the profession are discussed in private. Motions are passed and decisions are made which can impact greatly on the nothing. It would seem preferable if one were to be placed in a position where one can discuss certain matters at Bar Association level, obtain a view and then express that view along with one's own view at Council. profession but about which the profession as a whole may know Certain things occur to me immediately with regard to the

which gives the President for the time | being a great deal of influence. You must firstly remember that the President is not elected by popular choice or for any particular meritorious reason. As soon as he is elected, he adopts this position which demands great respect and deference. To disagree with the President or to criticise the President is heard and seen by the majority of those sitting around the Council table as being generally non-u, disrespectful and letting the side down. This position of influence enables the President and indeed the Senior Vice- President to pass comment on a huge variety of matters which concern you and I. Often times you will read in the newspaper that the President has made such and such a statement which might be completely misinterpreted by a media happy to criticise us. This is a danger. Being an ordinary Council member is a little like being a back bencher in that one can obtain more information more freely but actually getting anything done, or even getting it discussed, can be a major problem. Anyhow unless a topic for discussion is introduced from the top it will receive only the most cursory attention and will thus be buried. A part of the brief for the Review Working Group was to address some of these problems. As you have gathered the profession at the last AGM decided that an Extraordinary General Meeting would be called early in 1996 and preferably before March the 8, to discuss the Review Group's report. I urge you to read the report. You should then read it again and I think try to meet with your local Bar Association to discuss it. When the arguments are over you should try to take the time to come to the EGM. There will doubtless be points with Continued on page 38

Dear Colleagues

I have just attended my first Council meeting. 1,500 colleagues voted for me in response to a letter which I wrote on October 26 last. I thank all sincerely for that. I hope that I will not be intimidated into letting down the side. I expressed views in my letter which I assume appealed to the 60% of the electorate who voted for me. I expressed serious interest in Finance and Public Relations and the user friendliness of our Society. I commented on the huge number of committees and the Presidential election. I was elected by a record vote. To me that means not that I am a popular guy - I'm not - but that I touched nerves and expressed views held by many of you. Well, let's get straight to the results. I asked the Director General, Ken Murphy and Registrar, P.J. Connolly to transmit to the powers that I should like to sit on the Finance Committee, the Public Relations Committee and the Registrar's Committee. I foolishly thought that 1,500 votes from members of the Society would hold some sway. I regret to tell you that I was placed on the Registrar's Committee and the Parliamentary and Law Reform Committee which I know is so dear to all your hearts. At the Council meeting we had the usual farcical election of President, Senior Vice-President and Junior Vice- President. Paddy Glynn, the out-going President, told us how he had waited so long for his turn. It finally came. In a moment of levity he continued, "I didn't set out to change the world and am not over-concerned that I didn't." Andy Smyth, who then took the chair on his totally amazing and surprising election told us how honoured he was. He told us that he had waited 18 years

There is also a rather tedious tradition

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