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work behind the scenes to organise the occasion and have very
kindly invited us to a cocktail party to be held before our
dinner-dance tonight. On your behalf I thank them for their
generosity.
I am sure that you will all join with me in sending every good
wish to the president of the Donegal Solicitors' Association,
Mr. J. Allan Osborne, whose advanced years prevented him
from attending here today. Mr. Osborne commenced practice
in 1894 and is the father of our profession. He attained the
age of 91 last week and he is still in active practice, a record
that can hardly be surpassed in legal longevity.
I think the
choice of Donegal for our meeting was a good one as you have
here scenery unsurpassed in mountain, lake and seascape and
although we are now in what was originally the Fort of the
Foreigner we shall leave after this weekend with the new
knowledge and awareness of one of the most beautiful
counties in Ireland and its kindly and hospitable people.
Your county has contributed richly to the history and culture
of our land being once the kingdom of the O'Donnells,
famous princes of the past, and the home of the Four Masters
who compiled here their famous Annals over four centuries
ago.
RULE OF LAW
I am very proud to have the privilege of addressing you
here today as a president of your Society and am even more
proud to greet you all as fellow lawyers.
The solicitors' profession fills a very vital role in all civilized
communities and is most necessary for the preservation of the
right of the individual especially when such an individual
comes in conflict with a Department of State or a powerful
body such as a local authority or large corporation.
In this modern world with its complex society planning at
various levels is becoming more and more prevalent and the
rights of the individual are more than ever in need of protection.
It is not for one moment suggested that any of our legislators
at Government or local authority level would knowingly seek
to impose undue or unnecessary hardship on any individual
person or class of person but should such a case arise the one
protection to the individual is the capable lawyer fearless to
act and speak in his client's interest.
You have seen in other countries what has happened to the
individual and indeed to large classes of individuals when
totalitarian influences gain the upperhand and the rule of law
is abrogated or conveniently forgotten. This could not have
happened had those countries a strong and virile legal pro
fession conscious of their duties and privileges to defend the
right and trained to protect the inherent rights and interests of
the most humble citizen.
Lawyers in Ireland are heirs to a proud tradition of indepen
dence and willingness to serve the public whatever the
consequence. We of this present generation carry a tremendous
responsibility to do all in our power to promote the rule of
law, not only in our country but amongst the nations of the
world.
INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION
Your Council continues to keep in close contact with the
International Bar Association which we joined in 1956 under
the leadership of our then president, Mr. Dermot Shaw.
Meetings of the International Bar Association arc held every
second year and have been attended by a delegation from your
Council headed by the president for the time being. The last
meeting was held in Edinburgh in 1962 when your Council
was represented under the leadership of Mr. George Overcnd.
The next meeting of the International Bar Association is
scheduled for Mexico City towards the end of July, 1964,
and I have noted from correspondence that I have received
in the matter that Mr. John Carrigan, Senator John Nash,
Mr. Dermot Shaw and Mr. Ralph Walker represent our
country on the several committees of the conference.
Although a year has yet to pass before the conference will
be held and the distance is considerable the Law Society of
England have been in correspondence with our Society with
a view to ascertaining ifa chartered flight by air can be arranged
for delegates attending from Europe. If they are successful in
their efforts the cost of the journey would be very substantially
reduced.
I mention this matter now as I should like to stress that
attendance at conferences of the International Bar Association
is open to all members of affiliated societies and accordingly
any member of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland who
wishes to attend such a conference is perfectly free so to do.
The conference in Mexico affords an opportunity of seeing new
lands and new people and to meet practitioners of different
systems of law.
LAW REFORM
The reform and codification of our laws has always been
an object of concern for your Council and we are very happy
to see that this necessary and desirable object is now being
pressed. I should like to place on record our appreciation of
the steps now being taken in that regard by our present
Minister for Justice and to assure him and his Department
that the Society is wholeheartedly behind him in his efforts
and are ready to place at his disposal the diverse experience
of our members in country and city.
My distinguished predecessor, Mr. George G. Overend,
during his year ofoffice, instituted the practice whereby members
of the Council, usually two in number, prepared and submitted
to the Council a memorandum on the particular branch of the
law requiring codification or reform. Many such memoranda
were prepared and in due course were sent to the Department
of Justice. I am happy to say that many of our recommendations
were accepted and have been or will be reflected in legislation.
I think the thanks of the Society are due to those members of
the Council who devoted their time and ability in painstaking
research and I am happy to note that their work was given
public recognition in Dail Eireann by the Minister on the
debate on what is now the Hotel Proprietors Act, 1963.
Your Council is only too well aware of the difficulties of
our practitioners owing to the lack of modern textbooks
dealing with our changing laws and in an attempt to ameliorate
the position have procured the publication of booklets dealing
with the Civil Liability Act, 1961, Stamp Duty Legislation,
the Administration of Estates Act, 1959,
the Statute of
Limitations Act, 1957 and the Married Woman's Status
Act, 1957.
These booklets are not and were never intended to be
exhaustive treatises on the branch of the law with which they
deal but do afford to the practitioner a concise and clear
statement of the changes effected by modern legislation.
A further booklet on contracts and the investigation of
title on sale of property is in course of preparation and it is
also hoped that the Council will be able to publish a booklet
on Probate practice.
It is gratifying that work of this sort is not confined to the
Council and to note that under the auspices of the Provincial
Solicitors' Association a booklet will shortly be published
dealing with estate duty.
When my predecessor, Mr. Overend, addressed you in
General Meeting last November, he expressed the hope that
the Society would arrange a series of annual lectures for
qualified solicitors to be given on matters which had been
the subject of legislative change during the preceding year.
Your Council is now engaged in arranging a number of
lectures of this nature and with a view to facilitating prac
titioners who would find it inconvenient to travel to Dublin