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The Gazette .of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland
[December, 1941;
30th September, 1941, whic.h.
by the Chairman..
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" The Chairman with the consent of the
meeting signed the audited accounts of the
Society for the year ending 30th April, 1941.
The Secretary read the Report of the.
Scrutineers of the Ballot for Council, which
stated that the following had been returned
unopposed
as
Provincial Delegates:
Ulster, John Gillespie; Minister, A.
J.
Blood-Smyth ;
Leinster, W. L. Duggan
Connaught, C- E. Callan.
That for the
thirty-one Ordinary Members of the Council
the following had been elected and received
the number of votes placed after
their
respective names : J. Travers \Volfe, 360 ;
E. F. Collins, 348 ; Arthur Cox, 347 ; VV. J.
Norman, 339; P. F. O'Reilly, 338; H. P.
Mayne, 337; T. £. Quirke, 335;
J. P.
Carrigan, 328; H. St. J. Blake, 328; J. J.
Lynch, 327 ;
W.
S: Hayes, 321 ; S. O'hUad-
haigh, 320; L. E. O'Dea, 311; Peter
O'Connor, 308 ; P. R/'Boyd, 305 ; M. G. R.
Lardner, 295 ;
G. A. Overend, 286; D.
O'Connell, 286; M. E. Knight, 285; J. R.
Brennan, 269; H. O'Donnell, 267: W.
Gordon Bradley, 267; E. H. Burne, 265;
J. B. Hamill, 254; R. A. Macaulay, 246;
J. T- Dunne, 246; John J. Dundon, 242;
J. S. O'Connor, 237; C. G. Stapleton, 234;
W. S. Huggard, 233 ; T. D. McLoughlin, 227 ;
and the following to form a supplemental
list in case of vacancies : Roger Greene, 222 ;
F. D. Darley, 198 ; J. F. Smyth, 191.
The President addressing the Meeting said :
There is very little to add to the Report
of the Council for the year ending to-day,
which has been put before you. The member–
ship of your Society shows a small but
satisfactory increase following up previous
increases ; we trust this increase will continue.
I .wish I could say the same of the general
prospects of the profession. Our profession
is an overcrowded one. During this year
67 new solicitors have arrived. Owing to the
shortage
of
petrol
and
coal,
travelling
facilities, so
important especially for the
Country Solicitors, have proved a very
serious matter.
It now means to me that
every time I come to Dublin to attend a
Meeting of the Council I am absent three
and often four nights. The journey from
Cobh to Dublin prior to the curtailment of
the train service took three-and-a-half hours.
I have recently made the journey from
Dublin to Cork in eleven hours, but I am
told that many -others have been less for–
tunate.
I have made the journey from Cork
to my home town, a distance of just over
fifty miles,
in
six-and-a-half- hours, but
again, I do not hold the record.
,
The position of the Country Solicitor is
at present not a happy one! His city brother,
is not much better off. Owing to the shortage
of petrol there has been a substantial decrease
(I was going to say a regrettable decrease)
in the number of actions for personal injuries.
Land purchase is also dying out. Legal work
of every kind has been badly hit by the
present unsettled economic situation. When
the trouble in this country was at its worst
the country solicitors were largely fed with
Criminal Injury Applications, and while we
will not ask for a return of those days nothing
has come to replace the shortage of litigation.
As you know this has been the Centenary
3'ear of our Society. We have celebrated
it by proceeding to establish a permanent
annuity to be administered
through our
very efficient Benevolent Association.
I was
hoping, and am still hoping, that we would
have a sufficient fund to establish an annuity
of
£40
a year. We are still a little short of
that mark, but with a strcng pull, and a pull
all together, we should be in a position to
accomplish it. When we do, many a widow
and many an orphan will bless the Centenary
year of our Society.
May I venture an optimistic note as to the
prospects of our honoured profession. What
the veil of the future may hide is not given
to man to know, and the darkest hour is that
before the dawn, and may we hope and pray
that the dawn of the Legal Profession in
Eire will soon break ;
Universal peace
would bring that ;
and may we hope and
pray that it will not be long in coming.
I beg to move the adoption of the Report.
Mr. W. J. Norman, Vice-President, sec–
onded the adoption of the Report, and Mr.
McLoughlin, Mr. Desmond Moran and Mr.
E. H. Burne having spoken, the President
replied and put the motion that the Report
be adopted, which was passed unanimously.
Mr. Norman, Vice-President, having taken
the chair, on the motion of Mr. E. H. Burne,
seconded by Mr. O'Connell, Vice-President,
and supported by the Chairman, Mr. Norman;
a hearty vote of thanks was passed to the
President who
returned thanks and
the
meeting terminated.
ALL Communications connected . with .THE GAZETTE (other than advertisements) should be addressed to
the Secretary of the Society, Solicitors' Buildings, Four Courts, Dublin. N.W.8.