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GAZETTE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1992
Windward Of The Law
Second Edition by Rex Mackey.
The Round Hall Press, 200pp.
Hardback £19.95
The law and stories about the legal
profession have long been fertile
ground for authors w i th a legal
ba c k g r ound.
Rex
Ma c k e y 's
Windward of the Law, second
edition, is a history of the Irish Bar
and legal profession from the early
days of Anglo-Norman Dublin.
Rex Mackey
is a well known Senior
Counsel practising at the Irish Bar
and published the first edition of
this book in 1965. The second
edition has been published w i th an
epilogue which reviews develop-
ments in the legal profession since
then.
The book has been described as a
w i t ty account of how the Irish have
shaped the law and has also been
referred to as light hearted revela-
tions, by various reviewers, but I
would suggest that these com-
ments are misleading. This book
which contains some light hearted
moments is a well written, inter-
esting and serious history.
I enjoyed the book, and found it
informative and sometimes amus-
ing, but Mr. Mackey's accounts of
many injustices visited upon the
ordinary people by an alien law
imposed by a foreign administration
filled me w i th sadness. The many
occasions when the death penalty
was handed out for minor offences
which were more often than not
proved, by an incompetent judi-
ciary, and often against innocent
people, must make us very thankful
for the more benign times that we
live in today and the abolition of the
death penalty.
The judiciary and their appointment
have come in for severe comment
by Mr. Mackey but there are good
a c c o u n ts of i ngen i ous legal
dialogue be t ween judges and
barristers such as Daniel O'Connell
which do bring a smile. There are
funny stories about the demeanour
of and evidence given by witnesses
in cases in days gone by, and while
in his epilogue, Mr. Mackey regrets
the passing of the jury system, his
many stories about the perversity
of juries long ago does cause some
amusement.
There is a most interesting chapter
on the building of Kings Inns and if
one ever wondered why the Bar in
Ireland does not have a chamber
system, the answer is in this book.
It appears that plans to this effect
were prepared by Gandon, but in
1806 he resigned "as the work was
not advancing as rapidly as desired
owing to lack of funds". Do many
things change?
I enjoyed the book and would
universally recommend it.
Elma Lynch
Summing It Up:- Memoirs
of an Irishman at Law in
England
By James Comyn. The Round
Hall Press (1991), 232pp. £19.95
This is another book from the
prolific hand of Irishman,
James
Comyn
QC., who, after a long
career at the English Bar (including
chairmanship of the Bar Council of
England and Wales), was a High
Court Judge for some ten years,
until his recent retirement. This
book is light and succeeds in being
both entertaining and, in places,
memorable, in the way that, for
many, Maurice Healy's
Old Munster
Circuit,
even after more than f i f ty
years, still remains entertaining and
memorable. The author's father
(James Comyn K.C.) had in fact
been 'father' of the old Munster
Circuit, and his uncle, Senator/
Judge Michael Comyn KC, had
been a legal adviser to De Valera
during the 1920s. The author spent
a short time in 1938 working w i th
The Irish Times
before proceeding
to Oxford and a legal career in
England. Throughout his working
life, he continued to maintain a
house in Ireland and to come here
regularly. He is now living in
retirement in Co. Meath, engaging
in farming and writing.
His short sojourn in
The Irish Times
clearly developed his humorous
insights, enjoyed particularly by
lawyers, where the seriousness of
the occasion or topic highlights the
(often unintended) humour. He
describes an occasion of being
ticked-off by R.M. Smyllie, the then
inimitable editor, after writing an
'advanced obituary' of a still living
cardinal, for including the informa-
t i on t h a t : " H is Eminence was
unmarried".
This is a book that one feels might
have had its genesis in front of a
blazing fire, w i t h the au t hor
recounting to a group of port-
drinking legal friends anecdote
after anecdote, coming to mind in
a random way. Mr. Comyn is able
to effectively set the scene for each
anecdote, a most important skill
because legal humour critically
depends on first creating the
solemn and serious occasion.
Even though intended to be light,
the book is also interesting and
informative, not least in conveying
some of what it is like to b&a 'cab-
rank' barrister in chambers as well
as the views of the author on the
personalities of some of the judges
of his time who are household
names to readers of the English law
reports.
This is the sort of book that one
can readily read and still feel
inclined to dip into at regular inter-
vals - like books by A.P. Herbert and
John Mortimer. It is uncondition-
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