The Gazette 1993

Law Society/ICL

Niall McCarthy Essay Prize

GAZETTE NOVEMBER 1993

At the presentation of prizes at the Law Society/ICL Niall McCarthy Essay Prize Competition were

l-r: Michael O'Mahony, President, Law Society; Maureen Kelly, Co. Down, winner of first prize;

Richard Christou, Director of Legal Affairs, ICL Europe; Maire Geoghegan-Quinn TD, Minister

for Justice and David MacDonald, Managing Director, ICL (Ireland) Ltd.

The Minister for Justice,

Maire

Geoghegan Quinn,

TD, recently

presented prizes in the inaugural Law

Society/ICL Niall McCarthy Essay

Prize Competition at a reception in the

Law Society. The purpose of the Essay

Prize which was named in honour of

the memory of the late Hon. Mr Justice

Niall McCarthy, Judge of the Supreme

Court, is to raise awareness amongst

lawyers of the impact which

information technology will have on

| their practices in the future.

All law students in Ireland, North and

I South, were eligible to enter the

competition. The winners of the

inaugural competition were:

Maureen

Kelly,

Co. Down, for her essay on

hypertext,

Kevin Greer,

a graduate of

Queens University, Belfast, for an

essay on computerised litigation

I support systems, and

Evelyn McAdams,

a Dublin student, who wrote a paper on

database protection. A special award

was made to Colin Kelly, Dublin, for

j his essay on computer crime in Ireland.

I The winners received prizes of cheques

! and ICL computers.

At the awards ceremony,

Peter

Maguire,

SC, spoke movingly in

memory of the late Niall McCarthy. He

said two aspects of the competition

would have particularly delighted Niall

McCarthy. Firstly, Niall McCarthy had

a passion for words and a meticulous

regard for structure and brevity which

was particularly to be seen in his

dissenting judgments. Secondly, Niall

McCarthy would have been very

pleased that the competition, dedicated

to his memory, was open to all law

students on the island of Ireland. "Niall

McCarthy was dedicated to bringing

the Bar and the Bench in the Republic

of Ireland together with the Bar and the

Bench in Northern Ireland", he said,

"as indeed are both professions." Peter

Maguire said that Niall McCarthy was a

man of unique sincerity, brilliance,

courage and intellect which was

tempered with the utmost modesty and

coupled with an impish sense of

humour.

David MacDonald,

Managing Director

of ICL Computers (Ireland), the

sponsor of the essay prize, told those

attending that information technology

in the future would be measured on

how it was used not what it could do.

Its effective application was the key to

its success. He said that ICL, which

was one of the leading suppliers of

information technology to the legal

i profession, was delighted to be

associated with the essay competition.

S Minister for Justice, Mrs.

Maire

Geoghegan-Quinn,

TD, said in her

I address to the gathering, that an

increase of almost 50% on the 1992

figure would be allocated to

computerisation in the courts this year;

over £300,000 would be spent. The

; money would be used to buy equipment

and software for the courts but, in

! particular, would be used for the case

! tracking system in the Central Office of

the High Court, which would become

operational within a few weeks. She

said that technology in the courts was

an issue that had not moved as quickly

as she would have liked, but much

progress had been made in 1993 and,

with the increased funding, substantial

progress would be made in the future.

Michael O'Mahony,

then Senior Vice

President of the Law Society, thanked

the judges and all those who had

worked on the competition. He said the

objective of the Technology

Committee of the Society in organising

the competition was to promote the use

of information technology by solicitors

in their practices and to heighten

awareness amongst the legal profession

of the importance of technology for the

efficient running and management of

legal practices. He expressed particular

appreciation to Mr. David MacDonald,

Managing Director, ICL Computers

(Ireland) Ltd., for their generous

sponsorship which included bearing

the cost of the competition and

awarding computer equipment and

cash prizes to the four best entrants.

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