The Gazette 1981

GAZETTE

APRIL 1981

Scholarship, The Society's Silver Medal, and the Guinness and Mahon Prize. This latter prize was established by Guinness and Mahon Ltd., in 1970, who award an annual prize of £50 on the combined results of the papers on Tax Law and Commercial Law in the Third Law Examination. The first award was made to John Stephen Hannon in 1970. In 1973, Allied Irish Banks Ltd. founded an annual prize of £100 for the best paper in Company Law in the Second Law Examination. Recent prizewinners were: 1980 Patrick J. Morrissey The Scholarships for the new system of training are really bursaries; the Industrial Credit Company Ltd. has generously donated £2,000 in each of the two years that Professional Courses have been run while the Society itself has made £4,000 a year available during the same period. The Dan Chambers Memorial Scholarship - currently in the region of £500 a year — is available to Clare students. It was established by friends and colleagues of Dan Chambers, the distinguished young Ennis solicitor who lost his life in a road accident on 1 September 1977. As the "old regulations" are gradually phased out, it will be necessary to adapt the scheme of scholarships and prizes so that they may be awarded to apprentices now being trained in the new and more "practice-oriented" Law School. No longer will it be relevant to award a prize on the basis of the highest marks attained in any examination but, at all events, it is to be hoped that the long tradition of recognising the academic achievements of apprentices in their professional studies continues unbroken. 1979 John J. Mannion 1975 John F. Condon

These prizes are awarded only if sufficiently high standards can be attained and the amount of the prizes depends on the yield from the invested funds and the frequency with which the prizes have been won. On the occasion of the Centenary of the Society's Charter of 1852, the Council of the Society established a prize of £10 (later increased in value) for the best candi- date, whose age does not exceed twenty-five years, at each First Law Examination, subject to a satisfactory standard of answering. Centenary prizewinners have included:

1958 Dermot F. Bouchier Hayes 1959 Maurice R. Curran 1960 James L. O'Keefe 1961 Michael V. O'Mahony

The Annual Report of the Council for the year 1961- 62 announced the establishment of two new prizes. During that year Mr. Val O'Connor of Swinford, Co. Mayo (a later President of the Society in 1972-73), pre- sented the Society with a sum of £100 to found a prize in memory of his late father, Patrick O'Connor, Solicitor, who had a special interest in the principles of equity and devoted much of his practice to Chancery cases. He appeared in some leading cases, e.g. Kelly v Morris roe, 53 I.L.T.R. 145, still the leading case on the degree of capacity necessary to sell or dispose of real property. The capital sum has been augmented several times by Mr. Val O'Connor and the value of the O'Connor Memorial Prize is now worth £42 annually. The prize is awarded annually for the best marks in the Equity paper in the Second Law Examination. In 1975 the winner was Thomas V. O'Connor (junior), grandson of Patrick O'Connor. Also in the year 1962, Comhdáil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge expressed a desire to establish a memorial prize in recognition of the interest of the late Seán ó hUadhaigh, who died in 1959, in the Irish language. He was for many years a member of the Council of the Society and a member of the Irish Legal Terms Advisory Committee. He had a great love of the Irish language and contri- buted much to the encouragement of its use in legal practice. This prize is awarded annually on the results of the Society's first examination in the Irish language and special consideration is given to proficiency in the spoken language. The first recipient in 1962 was James F. O'Higgins. In addition to the prizes already mentioned, the Society itself awards the following prizes: (1) The Society's Prize. This prize of £150, awarded annually to the apprentice who achieves the best overall results in the Second Law Examination. (2) The Society's Silver Medal, which is awarded to each apprentice who attains a minimum average mark of 70% in all subjects in the First, Second and Third Law Examinations. (3) The Society's Gold Medal, which is awarded on the same basis as the Silver Medal save that the minimum average mark must be 80%. In 1980, Mrs. Rowena Mulcahy achieved the distinc- tion of winning three of the six prizes for which, as a Third Law candidate, she was eligible —The Findlater

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