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GAZETTE
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1994
Ch i ef Jus t i ce Thomas Finlay
- An App r ec i a t i on
Chief Justice
Finlay
is the seventh
person since the foundation of the
State to have occupied that great
office. Yet he is also the only one of
those seven to have been born since
the foundation of the State. Two of his
predecessors died in office. Two
others resigned to become judges in
the Court of Justice of the European
Communities. Another resigned on the
grounds of ill-health before reaching
the compulsory retirement age. Only
Chief Justice Finlay and the late Chief
Justice
Conor Maguire
remained in
office until reaching that age. Happily
Chief Justice Maguire lived for many
years after his retirement. We all wish
the present Chief Justice a long and
happy life after his retirement age
which he reaches on September 17
this year.
In the course of my judicial career I
had the privilege of serving with five
of the seven Chief Justices, my last
five years being spent with Chief
Justice Finlay. I also had had the
pleasure of being a colleague at the
Bar from the time of his call to the
Bar until my own departure from it.
All my association with him, both at
the Bar and on the Bench, has been
most happy and richly rewarding in
terms of personal relationship as well
as in terms of professional
relationship. My experience was one
which was also true of all those
numerous persons who worked with
him in the many spheres of activity
which engaged his attention and
included the cultural and the
charitable and others far removed
from the practice and development of
the law and the administration of
justice. His near inexhaustible
patience and his unfailing courtesy in
all situations are too well known to
require any elaboration.
His skill as an advocate was
recognised throughout the legal
profession and by those members of
the public who had the good fortune
to have been represented by him as
The Hon Mr Thomas Finlay, Chief
Justice,
who retires on September
17.
well as by those who had the ill-luck
to be opposed by him in litigation
especially in jury trials. He had the all
too rare gift of being able to reduce
the points at issue to the essential few
and to refrain from that form of
advocacy which allocates equal
weight to all points thus causing the
good ones to sink to the level of the
less than good. Incidentally, it is
worth recalling that in his busy
"junior" days
Tom Finlay
was elected
to the Dáil at his first attempt. This
was a remarkable feat in a Dublin city
constituency. He served very
effectively for three years as a Deputy
but did not offer himself for re-
election. No doubt if he had devoted
himself to a political career he would
have risen very high indeed but it is
safe to say, without disrespect to the
other organs of government, nothing
in those spheres would have surpassed
his achievements in the judicial organ
of government to the well-nigh
everlasting benefit of the consumers
of justice.
As a judge, and particularly as Chief
Justice, he has been the stalwart
defender of our liberties and rights. In
a remarkable address delivered by him
in the Supreme Court in the presence
of President Hillery on 29 December
1987, on the operation of the
Constitution of Ireland, in speaking of
the rapid, ready and unhesitating
acceptance by the legal profession of
the concept of the primacy of the
Constitution he said "even the most
cursory examination of the broad
outline of the Constitution shows
good reason why this acceptance
should have been so rapid and so
ready. Firstly, in relation to personal
liberty it is difficult to conceive a
more simple, ready and effective
remedy for unlawful detention than
the right to apply under Article 40 of
the Constitution to any Judge of the
High Court for an inquiry as to the
legality of your detention. Here you
have an express, unequivocal access
to the Courts, unhindered by any form
of procedural blockage or red tape . . .
without any formality at all and it
frequently consists only of a terse
written communication addressed to
the Judge . . . it can be established by
a lay person with a
bona fide
interest
(where the detained person) cannot
himself or herself make the
application." He furthermore stressed
that the immediate effect of the
Constitution is not even confined to
the Courts "but is applicable to all
forms of subsidiary or administrative
tribunals who must, in the course of
their activities, act in a Constitutional
manner, observing fair procedures."
The "Finlay" Court furnished ample
proof of the truth of these statements.
While lamenting the end of this too
brief era let us recall the words of
Seneca -
"felix est cui
quantulumcunque temporis contigit,
bene collocatum
est."
Let us recall that away from the
Bench
Tom Finlay
is a Brother of the
Angle. For those who love any
discourse of rivers and fish and
fishing, he is the man. He is doubly
worthy of
Izaak Walton's
dish of meat
that was "too good for any but
anglers, or very honest men."
Brian Walsh
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