REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT LUNCH HOSTED BY JUSTICES OF THE CIRCUIT AND DISTRICT COURTS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT LUNCH HOSTED BY JUSTICES OF THE CIRCUIT AND DISTRICT COURTS SATURDAY, 23 NOVEMBER, 2002
I am very grateful to the President of the District Court, His Honour Peter Smithwick, for the invitation to this lunch and very grateful to each of you for surrendering a precious Saturday so that we could meet. This is certainly the preferred way to appear in front of a judge of any court!
Most people meander through life without ever standing in a courtroom and we should be grateful for that but for those who do end up in court the chances are that they will find themselves in either the Circuit or District Court. Your courts are the locally based outward sign of the nationwide legal network that holds us together as a civilised civic society. Your work across a huge spectrum of human behaviour sets standards, vindicates hurts, protects, cajoles, punishes, inquires, redresses and in a very tangible way reinforces again and again, the value system that underpins our democracy and our way of life. You are held in the highest of esteem, trusted above many other callings and in an increasingly cynical world where trust is always vulnerable, your fidelity to the highest standards refreshes that trust from generation to generation. And of course inside that intricate web of laws and regulations you also have to find the space to be fully human, to connect sensitively with the humanity of even the most difficult or traumatised of men, women and children, manage a bewildering tribe of professional men and women police, lawyers, social workers, probation officers, defendants, plaintiffs, witnesses of all sorts and these things too you do particularly well.
You have absorbed and adapted to many changes legislative, technological structural and attitudinal in recent years. All of them bring different pressures and heighten the stress of what is an exceptionally difficult job. You make decisions that affect peoples lives quite dramatically, judgment calls that take courage as well as skill, deal impartially with a mosaic of lived lives so that no sector feels excluded, knowing that in this age of accountability, of media instant analyses, that you can be subject to the most intense and severe scrutiny any day of the week, any moment in time. You have to keep up with the changing law and our changing world- all the time remembering that you are part of a very special cohort that sits right on the front line of the credibility of our democratic institutions.
We have been fortunate in this country to have such a fine tradition of committed, talented individuals who undertake the work of being judges in the Circuit and District Courts, people like you whose integrity brings great dignity to the courts and gives our citizens the confidence in our legal system which underpins their ongoing consent.
I hope the work brings you deep personal fulfilment despite its pressures and while it is not done for thanks, this is an important opportunity to offer thanks on behalf of the Irish people for all you do in our name and on our behalf. The Circuit and District Courts have given loyal service to the people of this State. You are the stewards of fine tradition and long may you continue to exercise that stewardship with wisdom and compassion
Thank you.