The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

DECEMBER 1996

The Four Courts: hOl11e to the lavv for

200

years.

Last month saw the two hundredth

anniversary of the Four Courts as the

centre for justice in Ireland, and the event

was marked by what the

Irish Times

called

'a party with a difference'. On the evening

before the bicentennial celebrations, the

Law Society held its own party at

Blackhall Place, where the guest of honour

was Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord

Chancellor of England and Wales. The

photographs on the following pages should

give a flavour of both occasions.

The Four Courts celebration was hosted by

the Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Hamilton,

whose first duty was to welcome President

Mary Robinson back to familiar ground.

Mrs. Robinson began

her~

legal career

'devilling' in the Four Courts in 1968. The

other guests of honour included: Lord

Mackay of Clashfern; the Lord President

of Scotland, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry; Sir

Brian Hutton, Lord Chief Justice of

Northern Ireland; and Lord Bingham, Lord

Chief Justice of England and Wales.

The Minister for Justice and the American

Ambassador were also present, as were a

large number of judges, barristers,

solicitors, politicians and gardaf. The Law

Society was represented by then President

Andrew F Smyth, incoming President

Frank Daly, Director General Ken Murphy

and a number of Council members.

In his opening address, Mr. Justice

Hamilton said that very few buildings

embodied a profession in the way the Four

Courts did. And following a lecture on the

building's history by Dr. Maurice Craig

(see below), President Mary Robinson

addressed the assembled guests. The best

way to mark the celebration, she

suggested, was to link the past to "the

challenge of the new millennium".

Finally, it was the tum of Minister for

Justice Nora Owen, who at that time was

embroiled in a political row over the

release and rearrest of 16 prisoners and her

Department's failure to notify Judge

Dominic Lynch of his removal from the

Special Criminal Court. The Minister said

it was an historic occasion and deserved to

be marked by a special ceremony. "The

Courts playa very important part in any

democracy and the Irish people can be

happy in the knowledge that our courts

administer justice to all, without fear or

favour, in accordance with the

Constitution and the law", she said.

The Four Courts had seen many changes in

its 200 years, the Minister noted. 'On the

evidence before our eyes', she concluded,

'the building will continue to serve the

courts and the general public very well in

tandem with the future development of the

courts system' .

Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, being greeted by

Justice Liam Hamilton, Chief Justice,

and Brendan Ryan, Administration Manager in charge of the Four Courts Building,

her arrival

for the Bicentenary Celebrations

November

1996.

It was research by Brendan Ryan which

identified

November

1796

as the date of the first ever court sittings

Gandon's new building.

Extract from address

Dr Maurice Craig

the history

the Four Courts

"For my money the Four Courts is the

grandest building in Dublin. I don' t say

it is the best, and certainly not the most

faultless. But it is the one which makes

the biggest statement.

As we all know, the courts sat for a

couple of centuries very near here, in the

shadow of Christ Church, the Four

Courts of the King's Bench, Chancery,

Exchequer and Common Pleas. And

when, towards the end of the eighteenth

century, it was at last decided to house

them with greater dignity, they did not

move very far; just

acros~

the river and a

few yards to the West.

Ten years before the first stone of the

Four Courts proper was laid, the building

which is now the West Wing had been

begun, to the design of Thomas Cooley,

in 1776.

was designed to be the

repository of the legal records and it was

one of the very first government offices

ever built in Ireland. So Gandon was not

working on a blank sheet as he had been

at the Custom House.

Gandon's enemies mai ntained that the

great drum-tower rising out of the central

block was put up as a piece of self–

glorification by the architect, and that it

served no useful purpose. And of course

they were quite right - at least in the

second of those propositions. His

enemies derided the elaborate geometric

pattern of the planning of the central

block. Setting the four courts at an angle

of 45 degrees radiating out towards the

corners resulted in a large number of

small spaces being left over: octagons,

small rectangles and triangles, and the

critics made fun of these. But they had

their uses.

To begin with, the backs of all four of

the courts were open towards the hall:

that is to say, each alternate pair of

columns was free-standing so that you

could see straight into each court. I think

this must deri ve from some primiti ve

theory that j ustice must be seen to be

done in the open,

coram populo.

But for

practical reasons, this did not last long.

All of this was blown to smithereens by

the bombardment and the explosions of

1922. The Government, to its great

credit, restored the Four Courts, as it did

the Custom House and the GPO. This

might well not have happened, but it did:

and we should be eternally grateful

for it" .

373