34 / 298
GAZETTE
APRIL 1981
These prizes are awarded only if sufficiently high
standards can be attained and the amount of the prizes
depends on the yield from the invested funds and the
frequency with which the prizes have been won.
On the occasion of the Centenary of the Society's
Charter of 1852, the Council of the Society established a
prize of £10 (later increased in value) for the best candi-
date, whose age does not exceed twenty-five years, at
each First Law Examination, subject to a satisfactory
standard of answering. Centenary prizewinners have
included:
1958 Dermot F. Bouchier Hayes
1959 Maurice R. Curran
1960 James L. O'Keefe
1961 Michael V. O'Mahony
The Annual Report of the Council for the year 1961-
62 announced the establishment of two new prizes.
During that year Mr. Val O'Connor of Swinford, Co.
Mayo (a later President of the Society in 1972-73), pre-
sented the Society with a sum of £100 to found a prize in
memory of his late father, Patrick O'Connor, Solicitor,
who had a special interest in the principles of equity and
devoted much of his practice to Chancery cases. He
appeared in some leading cases, e.g.
Kelly v Morris roe,
53 I.L.T.R. 145, still the leading case on the degree of
capacity necessary to sell or dispose of real property.
The capital sum has been augmented several times by
Mr. Val O'Connor and the value of the O'Connor
Memorial Prize is now worth £42 annually. The prize is
awarded annually for the best marks in the Equity paper
in the Second Law Examination. In 1975 the winner was
Thomas V. O'Connor (junior), grandson of Patrick
O'Connor.
Also in the year 1962, Comhdáil Náisiúnta na
Gaeilge expressed a desire to establish a memorial prize in
recognition of the interest of the late Seán ó hUadhaigh,
who died in 1959, in the Irish language. He was for many
years a member of the Council of the Society and a
member of the Irish Legal Terms Advisory Committee.
He had a great love of the Irish language and contri-
buted much to the encouragement of its use in legal
practice. This prize is awarded annually on the results of
the Society's first examination in the Irish language and
special consideration is given to proficiency in the spoken
language. The first recipient in 1962 was James F.
O'Higgins.
In addition to the prizes already mentioned, the Society
itself awards the following prizes:
(1) The Society's Prize. This prize of £150, awarded
annually to the apprentice who achieves the best
overall results in the Second Law Examination.
(2) The Society's Silver Medal, which is awarded to
each apprentice who attains a minimum average
mark of 70% in all subjects in the First, Second and
Third Law Examinations.
(3) The Society's Gold Medal, which is awarded on the
same basis as the Silver Medal save that the minimum
average mark must be 80%.
In 1980, Mrs. Rowena Mulcahy achieved the distinc-
tion of winning three of the six prizes for which, as a
Third Law candidate, she was eligible —The Findlater
Scholarship, The Society's Silver Medal, and the
Guinness and Mahon Prize.
This latter prize was established by Guinness and
Mahon Ltd., in 1970, who award an annual prize of £50
on the combined results of the papers on Tax Law and
Commercial Law in the Third Law Examination. The first
award was made to John Stephen Hannon in 1970.
In 1973, Allied Irish Banks Ltd. founded an annual
prize of £100 for the best paper in Company Law in the
Second Law Examination. Recent prizewinners were:
1980 Patrick J. Morrissey
1979 John J. Mannion
1975 John F. Condon
The Scholarships for the new system of training are
really bursaries; the Industrial Credit Company Ltd. has
generously donated £2,000 in each of the two years that
Professional Courses have been run while the Society
itself has made £4,000 a year available during the same
period. The Dan Chambers Memorial Scholarship -
currently in the region of £500 a year — is available to
Clare students. It was established by friends and
colleagues of Dan Chambers, the distinguished young
Ennis solicitor who lost his life in a road accident on 1
September 1977.
As the "old regulations" are gradually phased out, it
will be necessary to adapt the scheme of scholarships and
prizes so that they may be awarded to apprentices now
being trained in the new and more "practice-oriented"
Law School.
No longer will it be relevant to award a prize on the
basis of the highest marks attained in any examination
but, at all events, it is to be hoped that the long tradition
of recognising the academic achievements of apprentices
in their professional studies continues unbroken.
Wood &
Associates
Consulting Engineers
and Accident Investigators
25-26 St. Mary's Abbey
Dublin 7
HAVE
Office Premises to Let
Recently decorated first floor offices convenient to
the Four Courts. Four rooms, reception area and
toilets. C. 1,000 sq. ft. Fully carpeted, storage
heaters and remote-control security door lock.
Telephone lines, telex and secretarial facilities
available if required. Viewing by appointment.
Telephone (01) 713177
34