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LAW STUDENTS DEBATING SOCIETY
INAUGURAL
The Inaugural Meeting of the Law Students
Debating Society was held at the King's Inns,
Dublin, on 18th February 1971. The President of
the Society, The Chief Justice presided.
The
Record Secretary did not read the minutes of the
last Inaugural Meeting but departed from pre
cedent when he gave a humourous account of an
imaginary law students revolt in the Inns in which
baseless and unwarranted attacks on solicitors
were made.
The auditor, Mr. Conor Maguire then delivered
his inaugural address on the subject of "Religion
and the Modern Irish State". He emphasised that
since the 18th century the Catholic Church in
Ireland was very conservative and that it tended
at all times to support the status quo. Maynooth
College was established to counter the revolution
ary sentiments of the French Revolution.
This
conservative tendancy of the Church continued
even after the establishment of
the Irish Free
State in 1922 and the hierarchy consistently con
demned extremist movements. He thought that
in the 1937 Constitution, Article 44 dealing with
the special position of the Catholic Church should
be deleted as it was mere verbiage, and conferred
in fact no special rights.
Reverend Father Hurley, Director of the School
of Oecumenics said it was incredible that Ireland
had not yet ratified the United Nations Convention
of 1966 against discrimination and racialism. The
remedy was an authentic oecumenism between
the Churches.
Many persons appeared to be in revolt against
formalistic Christianity and
against
religiosity.
There appeared too little genuine religious and
charity and yet there were many churches, each
of which was defending its own interest by so-
called orthodox
formalism
and doctrine;
this
tended to lead to intolerance. The only remedy
was oecumenism, which specified that there is one
Christian faith, and that the separate churches are
embodiments of it. As no one had put forward
a satisfactory oecumenical alternative he was not
disposed to get rid of Articles 44(2) and 44(3) of
the Constitution but these Articles should be read
in an oecumenical spirit. It was doubtful whether
any benefit would be derived from the introduction
of divorce as it was opposed by all Christian
churches but efforts would have to be made to
place mixed marriages on a more normal footing.
Senator John Horgan said that for historical
reasons, at a time when the Vatican was preaching
that the separation of Church and State was heresy,
the Irish Hierarchy was in fact putting it into
practice. In Britain and the United States, the
Hierarchy favoured separation, because Catholics
were in a minority. The result of this was that
Catholic social thinking in Ireland was completely
out of date as compared with the Continent. There
had been few confrontations nowadays between
Church and State in Ireland save as regards the
Mother and Child Health Scheme.
A formal
Concordat was not necessary, as politicians tried
to implement Catholic social teaching, and any
private bills introduced in opposition to it were
unlikely to pass. The first Apostolic Nuncio to
Ireland in 1929 had in fact been appointed with
out informing the Hierarchy. There had been an
unfortunate
tendency
by
some politicians
to
identfy Ireland as a Catholic nation, and this had
inevitably
led
to
stiff
reactions
in Northern
Ireland. The preamble to the Constitution, in men
tioning "God who sustained our father through
centuries of trial," appeared to be denominational.
He did not see why divorce should not be granted
to those who desired it subject to suitable guar
antees as to its limited application. As to Article
44, he was of opinion that it should be drafted in
broad general terms and that no specific denom
inations should be named.
NON-LEGAL EXAMINATION RESULTS
At the
Preliminary Examination
for intending
apprentices to Solicitors held from the 2nd to the
6th March, 1971 the following candidates passed:
James Joseph Binchy; Peter J. Boyle; Marian N.
Brazil; Eithne M. I. Breathnach; Nicholas Butler;
Jenifer Cantillon; Margaret M. Carter; Frances
Kathleen Cooke; Michael St.
John Donovan;
Patrick Joseph Farrell; John R. Fetherstonhaugh;
Sean Gallagher; Robert E. Halley; Fergal
J.
Hardiman; Alan G. Harrison; Caroline M. T.
Keane; Niall Keller; Ann Kennedy; Owen Ken-
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