222 / 736
Christopher Hogan, Rory O'Connor, Augus
tus Cullen, Peter D. M. Prentice, James R.
Desmond J. Collins, John O'Meara, Bruce St. J.
Blake, John J. Nash, B. J. O'Connor, Desmond
Moran, John B. Jerniyn, P. C. Moore, Brendan
A. McCrath, Eunan McCarron, Francis J. Lani-
gan,
John Maher, T. V. O'Connor, Gerald
Hickey, Gerard M. Doyle, Norman T. S. Spend-
love, Francis Armstrong, William A. Osborne,
Peter E. O'Connell, John Carrigan, Joseph L.
Dundon, B. J. Carroll, Walter Beatty, Gerard J.
Moloney, James W. O'Donovan and Robert McD
Taylor.
Extraordinary Members of the Council:
Messrs. Gerard M. Doyle, Richard Knight, and
Rory O'Connor were appointed as extraordinary
members of the Council being members of the
Dublin Solicitors' Bar Association.
The nominees of the Southern Law Association
who were appointed as extraordinary members
are Bernard J. Carroll, John B. Jerniyn, Gerald
J. Moloney, John F. Foley, John A. O'Meara.
The nominees of the Incorporated Law Society
of Northern Ireland, appointed as extraordinary
members were : Michael G. Bready, Sydney Lomas,
Patrick Maxwell, Frederick H. Mullan, and James
J. Napier.
Election of President and Vice-Presidents
Mr. Eunan McCarron, Solicitor, 9 Upr. Mount
St., Dublin, was elected President. Mr. McCarron
is a partner in the firm T.T.L. Overend, McCar
ron & Gibbon, Lower Mount Street, Dublin, Mr.
McCarron who was admitted in Hilary 1942 has
been a member of the Council continually since
1957. Mr. McCarron is secretary of the Solicitors
Benevolent Association.
James R. C. Green of the firm of Maxwell
Weldon & Company, Lower Baggot St., Dublin,
was elected Senior Vice-President.
James W. O'Donovan of James W. O'Donovan
& Company, 53 South Mall, Cork was elected
Junior Vice-President.
ADMISSION CEREMONY
Twenty five newly qualified solicitors were pre
sented with their parchments by the President,
Patrick Noonan, at Solicitors Buildings on Wed
nesday 3rd December 1968. The President ad
dressing the newly qualified solicitors and their
friends said :—
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a very pleasant
occasion for us all. It is pleasant, of course, above
all for the newly admitted solicitor, who now
holds in his hands the well earned award of all
his years of hard work. It is pleasant for their
parents and relatives to see the education which
they have given them, in many cases I am sure
with considerabel sacrifice, so richly crowned with
success and pleasant for me to have as one of the
last official actions I shall perform, the duty of
handing over these certificates and admit these
new members to our profession. It is not necessary
for me to add to what has already been told to
you by your masters that what you have chosen is
a profession and not a business abrogation simply.
Being a profession it carries not only professional
privileges but also duties of a very high order, it
is this sense of duty to a client and to the court
of which he is an officer, and to the public that
has marked our profession over the years and has
found it the high esteem in which it is held by
the public. That is a very great trust which has
been handed down
to us by
those who went
before us and we must be car'eful to see that we
hand it on to those who will succeed us in tact
and even in hand.
This is probably an appropriate time, to make
a few remarks about entry to our profession, I
mentioned in my half yearly address that the
number of applicants for indentures is greatly in
creased in recent years, indeed in the last six years
it
has
increased
over
three
times.
Further
more the rate of intake is approaching three times
the rate of wastage. With these statistics, I seem to
make a case for limiting the number of entrants
to our profession. But it has always been a mark
of our profession that it was and is open to any
one to enter it and please God we intend to keep
it that way. We are probably the only profession
now to which there is unlimited entry. In most
other professions the entry is limited in one way
or another. Not only is our entry not limited,
but, so far we have placed no restriction on the
number of times a student may sit examinations,
although a student who is obviously either not
working or not making the grade is encouraged
to see if he can find some other calling in life,
which is more suited to his talents. It is provided
by Statute that a master except in certain specific
circumstances can have no more than one appren
tice at the one time. This wise provision was
made by the Legislature so that the apprentice
should get the maximum opportunity of benifit-
ing from his master's undivided attention. This at
first sight would appear to be a limiting factor bst
quite clearly when the figures are examined it
can have no such affect. There are three hundred
offices comprising about six hundred solicitors in
Dublin alone,
there are another six or seven
78