The Gazette 1977

DECEMBER1977

GAZE1TE

SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS

SLIGO SEMINAR An Extract from Spy's Diary

with notmuch thought ofthe consequences. Lest this may be thought a disparagement of the charms of lady solicitors generally I must add that the band members were heard to remark that the females presentwere "a great looking bunch of birds" which I believe is a compliment to a lady in Sligo terminology. Not to have them outdone by the ladies, one Dublinfirm, I noted, appeared to have issued uniform sweat shirts to its junior partners to be worn on the occasion, and these looked very fetching indeed. The prize for elegant dressing however must go to Mr. David Pigot who was the only gentleman to wear a dinner jacket for the occasion. Sunday morning jolted us back to the realities of life with a talk by Brian McCracken S.C. on professional negligence. He had some very interesting contributions to make on this subject and the question time at the end was all very tongue-in-cheek, with one notable and very worthy exception, which I will not dwell upon here out of respect for the laws of libel. When we arrived back home I was told that the weekend weather in Dublin had been very fine. In Sligo it had as usual been wet, But I was able to report that the weekend had been very fine there too notwithstanding. —SPY A BRIEF GUIDELINE ON THE LAW RELATING TO ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN With the passing of the Courts Act 1971 (hereinafter called the 1971 Act) one could say that the first step on the path to reforming the legal status of illegitimate children was taken. However it was by no means a major reforming piece of legislation, evidenced by the fact that the maximum award which could then be granted by the District Court under an application order was £5—the previous maximum was £1. But the 1971 Act did enable the mother of an illegitimate child to bring affiliation proceedings in the High Court where there could be no maximum limit placed on the award. The Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act 1976 (hereinafter called the 1976 Act) heralded even more of the much needed reform in this particular area of the law. S.28 of that Act is the relevant section. What Therefore Is the Present Legal Position of the Illegitimate Child and his Unmarried Mother? The Illegitimate Children (Affiliation Orders) Act 1930 (hereinafter called the 1930 Act) is the principal piece of legislation in this area. 1 This Act enabled the mother of an illegitimate child to bring affiliation proceedings against the putative father. However the Act did not envisage any third party (apart from "a local body administering the relief of the poor then giving relief to the mother of an illegitimate child or to an illegitimate child") taking proceedings against the putative father, or for that matter, against the mother. However S.-S. 4A of the 1930 Act 2 provides that subject to the conditions laid down in S.-S. 4A(3), "any person"—including, it seems, the 185

Mercifully I was not left to languish alone on the platform of Heuston Station by following the programme instructions on how to travel to the Sligo Seminar—frantic telephone calls from the organisers and a back page newspaper notice all exhorted me to direct my steps to Connolly Station on Friday evening. Some malevolent person in authority had seen fit to house me, not in the Sligo Park Hotel where all the action was for the weekend, but in a somewhat less glamorous riverside establishment. For all these reasons my humour on arrival on the Friday evening was ill, and my mood was only improved by a few pleasurable hours spent blackening the characters of some chosen colleagues in the social proceedings which followed. My humour (if not my knowledge) was bettered further on the Saturday morning on hearing the good Mr. Henry Comerford's version of the trials with or without tribulations of personal injury claims. The topic of his lecture was of secondary importance. His manner of recounting his anecdotes of Court life in Galway was entertaining enough to cure many a sick head—even if the best intentioned possessors of those heads were forced into the bar again afterwards by the violent struggle that was taking place for coffee outside. A lecture by Peter Delaney followed on the subject of actuarial assessment of damages. I believe that it was very informative. Unfortunately my pre luncheon aperitif time clashed and I was forced to remain with the less erudite company in the bar. Lunch itself was a very well organised conveyor belt affair where the would-be diner was shunted through passages where food and eating utensils were pressed upon him from all sides and he emerged a dazed finished product helplessly weighing food and drink in either hand like the Statue of Justice and wishing for the arms of Buddha to enable him to shovel the lot into his mouth. The lunch when eventually eaten proved good and a lecture by Kevin Haugh B.L. followed where he outlined in great detail the defences available to offences under the Road Traffic Acts. I lamented the effort I had put into absorbing Mr. Haugh's learned words some days later when I read that the breathalyser laws were no longer to be enforced. Lost again my chance of shining in Court with a stunning defence! Saturday afternoon found several Solicitors bearing the buffeting wind at Rosses Point to clear the head for the night's entertainment when a great number of sinful, ginful, rumsoaked men were to be seen capering around the ballroom floor with their partners. The sinful amongst them were not given much opportunity of indulging in the licentious behaviour encouraged by soft lights and romantic music for the musicians of Sligo, who for some reason must have thought solicitors a slow lotto getmoving, were intent upon giving them some strenuous exercise for the evening. Never has there been such a moving occasion as this seminarial dance with discs slipping all over the place as solidly built famales were flung in the air with abandon but