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The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
JUNE, 1923
destruction of the Courts, consequent on the
inability
of
the Accountant-General
to
allocate the income of investments standing
in his name to the appropriate accounts or
to furnish a copy of accounts of funds under
his control, a deputation of your Council
attended on the Minister of Home Affairs,
when
the
inconvenience
and hardships
complained
of
were
represented,
and
suggestions made to remedy the grievance
by the appointment of a competent staff to
compile from the books in the Bank of
Ireland such key ledgers as were at present
wanted by
the Accountant-General and
which were necessary to him to discharge the
duties of his office. Promise was made that
the matter would have attention, and that
a temporary qualified staff would be engaged
on the work, but so far the Government has
been unable to make progress in the matter.
The Society's Library was destroyed in the
destruction of the Four Courts, and the
Council have to thank many members for
gifts of legal works. Amongst these donors
must be mentioned :
Mr. William S. Hayes,
Messrs. Bennett Thompson & Edwards,
Mr. P. B. Shell, Mr. Bergin, Messrs. Dix,
Mr. C. M. Grimes, Mr. Davy, Messrs. Baker,
Ringwood & Gordon ;
Mr. T. J. Greene,
Mr. F. J. Little. Mr. E. J. French, Messrs.
Molony & Owens, and Mr. W. L. Barlee.
Such in brief have been the principal
matters other than routine business that
have claimed the attention of your Council.
Last November my
predecessor,
in
addressing you, deplored the great loss which
our Society had then recently sustained in
the destruction of
their buildings
and
valuable contents. He pointed out, however,
that notwithstanding
its embarrassments
your Council had taken care that there was
no neglect in the education and examination
of candidates for the profession ;
recognising,
as our predecessors have always done, that
the best safeguard of our charters and
privileges is a professional education and
test such as would ensure that those who
enter the profession are qualified to discharge
the important work entrusted to them to the
safety and satisfaction of the public. Your
Council has continued this care, and they
have still to make grateful acknowledgment
to the President and Council of the Royal
College of Surgeons in affording to them the
use of
their fine Examination Hall arid
Lecture Theatre.
My predecessor, too, when referring to the
vexed conditions which were then prevailing
throughout the country, expressed the hope
that all the clouds which then lowered upon
the Free State would have disappeared by
our next meeting. Though we cannot say
that this hope has been fulfilled, we have
better grounds for hope now than then ;
the
areas of disorder are less, and what is more
important, a spirit more intelligent of public
welfare appears to be abroad.
It is being
recognised that to national well-being, to
patriotic sentiment, and to all that is worthy
in
national art and
industry,
internal
dissension is more baneful than the dictates
of foreign rule.
I think too that I echo
popular recognition and sentiment, when I
say nationality divorced and abstracted from
all the realities of life, aiming neither at
liberty nor prosperity, but claiming to be
supreme over the State and the members of
the community, is a chimera destructive of
the true spirit of nationality.
A historian in range of study and of
historic and political sagacity, perhaps unsur
passed in the last century pointed out over
sixty
years
ago
that
such
abstract
nationality was destructive, and that its
pursuit as a political principle would be
marked with material as well as moral ruin,
striving as it does that a new invention
should prevail over the works of God and
interests of mankind. We have had indica
tion of the truth of this forecast during the
last few years, and it is our earnest hope
that for trie future,
absit omen.
If, as many
believe, patriotism is the enlargement of the
family spirit, it is in peaceful security of life
and home that patriotism has its root.
Thus, a sure foundation and a sure fosterer of
national independence, of national prosperity
and of patriotic sentiment will be found in
wise laws with just and prompt administra
tion, so that each one may be confident that
no wrong shall remain unredressed and no
right unasserted. Well, one of the main
objects of our Society is to secure to the
public the services of men able and willing to
help towards that desired end.