193 / 346
GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER 1983
St. Louis University Law School
Seeks
4
A Little Irish' Collection
by
Martha Baker
Reprinted from St. Louis Business Journal, April, 1983.
When Eileen Haughey Searls visited her mother land
not too long ago, she returned with an idea: establish a
complete working Irish law library at St. Louis Univers-
ity School of Law.
Searls, 58, is a St. Louis University law professor and
librarian who decided that to complete the law school's
Irish holdings would take very little investment and
organizing. "The library has the basis collection. To
complete and maintain it, we need an endowment of
552,000. I know that's ridiculously low, but that's all
they (The Irish legal system) publish."
In order to establish a library as up-to-date as any law
office in County Cork, Searls said the Irish Law Center
would need, among other works, the "Acts of the
Oireachtas," records of legislation; the "Irish Tax Cases
and Digest of Cases" (the law library already has the
"Irish Reports," "Irish Jurist"); the "Custom and
Excise Tariff," tax sets; and the official biweekly
gazette, the "Iris Oifigiuil."
Searls and the members of the law center's committee
hope such a working library would assist St. Louis-area
companies with branches in Ireland. Those companies
include Alton Packaging Co., Emerson Electric Co.,
General Dynamics, Monsanto Co., The Seven-Up Co.
and Mallinkrodt Inc.
A counsel for Emerson said an Irish law library might
be useful for initial research, "depending on the
problem." In most cases, he added, any company would
follow the advice of its lawyers in Ireland in the long run.
"But the, library would contain information about tax
holidays (forgiveness of tax for a period of time) set up
by the country to encourage investment."
He added that an additional advantage to research
materials being handy is that the center would carry
publications pertaining to the European economic
community because Ireland is a member of the Common
Market.
"Companies using Ireland as a base sell to the whole
European community. The Irish law library could
provide material for companies interested in
establishing a subsidary there."
Neasa Gibbons Rohlik, an Irish solicitor in St. Louis
and a member of the law center's committee, said she
imagines that most companies with Irish subsidiaries call
corresponding attorneys in New York who, in turn,
contact their counterparts in Ireland. "But they pay for
that. The St. Louis University School of Law Library is
free."
Because of St. Louis University's membership in
Online Computer Library Center, all Irish legal matter
will be listed in the data base available to the 7,000
libraries in the network.
The Law School Library has all curent Irish court
reports; most old reports and statutes would be
purchased with the endowment. More than 55,000 has
been contributed so far to the endowment, Searls said.
Robert Staed, 68, a St. Louis lawyer of Irish descent in
general practice with Kappel Neill & Staed, said, "We
never intended to pick out the glamorous little country
of Ireland to build up the library, but merely to make the
library we now have much more complete." •
CAPITAL INVESTMENT
Are you seeking sound investments
for your clients?
For professional investment
management of capital sums contact
StandardLife
ASSURANCE COMPANY
59 Dawson
SI
nil
,
Dublin I. Tel. (0I)7-.V)%.
Ihuisacting business in Ireland since 1834.
185