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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.
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
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
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