the inquiry men
TRANSCRIPT
Fortnight Publications Ltd.
The Inquiry MenAuthor(s): Brian GarrettSource: Fortnight, No. 34 (Feb. 23, 1972), pp. 6-7Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25543952 .
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6 WEDNESDAY, 23rd FEBRUARY, 1972
Lords. He would also need patience, an
open mind and physical courage. The Minister's routine job in Belfast
would be to chair meetings of the Joint
Security Committee. This is the point at which civil politics and military operations ought to connect. A Whitehall civil servant cannot carry the political weight needed to sort out differences when Stormont
politicians and British generals begin to
argue 'eyeball to eyebalf. In default of a
political figure, operational control of the
agenda of events in Ulster is divided between British soldiers and Stormont
politicians. A Minister in Belfast could try to avoid
acts which Labour M.P.s will increasingly fasten upon for use against British policy.
With a small staff of half a dozen men, he would have a chance of wider contacts
than does the Home Secretary, now under
boycott from the elected representatives of the Catholic minority. He would also
get to learn about the subterranean ways
in which Pfotestant opinion moves. At a
minimum, a resident Minister would know what everyone knows who lives in the Province. He could learn this simply by reading the daily papers of Belfast, with a
couple of Dublin papers added to taste.
Any measure to increase London's
ability to act will exacerbate Protestant
suspicions, unless it can be seen as
directed against members of the Catholic
community. Yet Protestant suspicions of
London are now so great that there is
little confidence yet to be lost. It might be argued that the above
administrative reform would be the last straw leading to the emergence of Orange guns and an Orange takeover. If this is true or, if Whitehall will let this belief veto any British initiative, then there is no
needfor an Ulster Office. Instead, Northern Ireland should be transferred to the Foreign Office, for Ulster would then be truly alien a land as Southern Rhodesia, Malta or Egypt, where there is now no pretense that London has
authority.
The Inquiry Men
Brian Garrett
"But the compulsions of the law are no
substitute for the willing co-operation of the people
. . . Compassion requires of us
that we at all times make full allowance for the fears, the confusions and the
grievances of those caught up in the grim events which it is our duty to investigate.'
So began Sir Leslie Scarman when
opening the Tribunal of Inquiry under his
Chairmanship which investigated the violence which took place in Northern Ireland March and mid-August 1969.
Whilst he spoke Lord Cameron awaited
publication of the Report which he had
completed on the earlier civil disturbances. Now, in turn, Scarman J.,
his Report signed and in course of final
printing, watches the English Lord Chief
Justice, Lord Widgery^, open a new Tribunal in a worsening Northern Ireland situation. The intensity of the emergency has brought diminishing legal returns.
Would that it were a 'Carry on Judge' scenario one was describing. But it's not.
One simply wonders .... 'After Widgery, who?'
? or perhaps, more to the point, 'what?'. It is true there has been no lack
of reaction to the visiting judges. Few
people have not already decided for themselves what occurred or who is
responsible. But, with a limited exception in the case of Lord Widgery's Army service in the 1939-45 War, the Northern Ireland public have little knowledge of the
personalities and styles of the judges concerned. Yet significantly, it is
recognised fact that, unlike ordinary court
work, tribunals afford considerable scope to a judge to display both personal style and general attitudes.
Lord Cameron undoubtedly, is the most
worldly and political figure. Now 72 he is
unlikely to be asked to conduct any further government inquiry. His
comparatively modest background in
Scotland, his experience of service in the
RNVR in both World Wars, combined with defeat as a Labour Party candidate in the early 1930, made him a natural choice
were one seeking a down-to-earth critical
approach. Lord Cameron's distinctive contribution
has not been his work as a judge but rather as an arbitrator and trouble shooter
in complicated industrial questions. He
enjoys untangling facts from polemics and realities from postures. These qualities can readily be found on reading his
Report with its directness of approach ?
it is an approach rarelyLfound in the work of a judicial figure.
No one could deny that Sir Leslie Scarman is the outstanding intellect. His First in classics at Oxford is matched by outstanding achievement in legal studies.
A severe, angular and lined face face is offset by a quiet, relaxed manner and a striking gentleness of approach. He is very much the Chancery legal figure of
Trollope mould. He is Establishment but no party political commitment. He has a
passionate devotion to law reform ?
Lawyer's law, albeit, rather than
recolutionary change. At 60, the same age
as Lord Widgery, he shared with Widgery a similar practice whilst at the Bar mainly in town planning matters.
Surprisingly when one turns to his
judical career Scarman seems something
of a misfit, his intellectual talents not
apparently marched by judical performance. It may be judical work is too narrow. In any event the Law Commission
established in 1965 and charged with law reform i non party lines provided the
necessary vehicle, for his intellect and
passion. He became and remains its first Chairman which relieves him of judical work. As Chairman of the Law Commission he acts both in a public relations capacity in selling the concept and (as in the 1967 examination of divorce law) as instigator of reform. It remains to be seen, nontheless, whether
his future will lie more in work on
government Tribunals rather than in a
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FORTNIGHT ?
Chancery Court or as a Law Lord.
When one comes to Lord Widgery one
recognises, undoubtedly, the most
workmanlike and professional judge of the
three. He started as a solicitor in South
West England and was called to the Bar in
1946. He had a short career at the Bar
(some 14 years) followed by very speedy elevation on the Bench, ultimately
succeeding Lord Parker last year as Lord
Chief Justice. Lord Widgery has a reputation for
speed in his work and an awareness of the
need for improvements in judical machinery. His judgements are modest in
length, unspectacular and uncomplicated.
In the criminal field they are generally
regarded as sound. Despite his
background as a practitioner in town
planning he has appeared at ease on the criminal bench.
Those who know him admit that Lord
Widgery is a remote figure preferring family life to public controversy. There are few judicial mannerisms. It will be in
keeping with his reputation if he
completes the Londonderry Inquiry speedily, no doubt within a few weeks. But it remains to be seen whether he, or
any other judge can handle such a highly sensitive and emotionally charged subject
with authority. As things are, before his few weeks are out the Governments at
Westminster and Stormont may well be
again examining the Law Lists in search of a new Judge for yet another tragedy.
Lynch Law Dennis Kennedy
Two points about Mr. Lvnch's address to
the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis last week-end; first, the reference to the 'new moves'
against the IRA came in an insert into the
speech, not included in the original printed script, and apparently an after
thought inspired by an Irish Times leader of that morning. Second, Mr. Lynch gave an interview to Radio Eireann the
following day confirming that he knows as
much about the North as Brian Faulkner knows about Bangla Desh. (Even that may be an over statement given the
resourcefulness of the Member for East
Down.)
It is ironic that what has been seized
upon as the most positive element of the
speech, the news that the Attorney General was to use his powers under the
1936 Courts of Justice Act to intervene in cases where Justices had too lightly refused to return men for trial, should
come in a post-script. But then perhaps Mr. Lynch is being
more realistic than the commentators. The
dismissal of the charges against Dutch
Doherty, Martin Meehan and others
following a Border gun-battle was an
acute embarrassment to the Government,
in view of statements reported to have been made by the men to newspapers both after the incident and after their freeing. (The District Justice was of course going
on the Book of Evidence before him, not
newspaper cuttings, and it will only be seen at trial how thick or thin that Book
is.) Mr. Lynch knows very well however
that he still has to secure a conviction in the Circuit Court or the Central Court, or
wherever the defendants find themselves.
The use of these particular powers of the
Attorney General is far from a 'clamp down' on the IRA, though of course it will
help in some small degree to off-set the
disastrous effect on police morale the
quashing of charges at a preliminary stage has been having.
And there remains the problem of
minimum penalties being imposed upon conviction.
It would be naive to assume that the
Attorney General has been prodded into
action by the Government in order to aid
Northern security. It has been a rule of
the Lynch administration to do nothing that might be interpreted as helping Mr.
Faulkner. Southern security is the prime concern, particularly after the fright the
Government received, or gave itself, post
Derry and culminating in the burning of
the British Embassy. The threat to Southern security is not
so much an armed one as an emotional
one. Thus the Government may not act as
urgently against men bearing arms
illegally as it might, but it cannot afford to
have its authority, its popular standing,
undermined by an apparent flaunting of
the law once it has acted. In the radio interview, Mr. Lynch was
at his secrarian worst on contraception,
which has become, for many in the South, a test case on the Government's readiness
to grasp the nettle of liberalising society. In his speech he sheltered behind the fact
that a court case is pending on the
constitutionality of the ban on
contraceptives ? this was not mentioned
in the Dail when his party voted down Dr.
Neol Browne's Bill earlier this month.
Then, in radio interviews the following
day both he and Mr. George Colley, demonstrated quite clearly that any liberalising of society will come ?.s a part
of uniting the country, and not before. Mr. Lynch, who has an unfortunate
habit of muddling through to the most
revealing truths in impromptu statements, was asked why, as Protestants regarded contraception as a civil right
?
questioning on RTE tends to be a shade sectarian too ?
why he did not grant it now. He agreed that Protestants did
regard it as such, and if they joined in a united Ireland, that view would have to be taken into account.
Meanwhile we go plodding our way through the Middle Ages, with not a
Protestant, liberal Catholic, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, agnostic or atheist in sight.
These two themes were, regrettably, minor to the speech. Its main tenor, as has been generally noted, was a soft
peddaling towards Britain. It was both an effort to get back to the situation before
Derry, and an admission that Derry had not, after all, changed things entirely, and that Irish indignation and Dr. Hillery were not going to blow over what remains of the British Empire.
In this respect the speech was
constructive, prompting the SDLP to come in off its limb, and pushing open the door to a renewed dialogue with London.
Mr. Blaney was eclipsed; Mr. Haughey was welcomed back with everything but the fatted calf. Fianna Fail remains
schizophrenic.
Marching On
The events of Bloody Sunday are, in one form or another, common
knowledge. On the previous day a
march was held at Dungannon. The
following sketch, written immediately after the Dungannon march by a
visiting journalist, illustrates clearly the thin line netween peace and
the thin line between peace and
violence on each occassion
demonstrators come into contact with
the security forces.
I head off from Belfast along the
motorway in what seems like plenty of time. But nearing Dungannon,there's an
ominous line of cars ahead. Half an hour
later I draw up to the top of the army check point. It's manned by men of the
UDR, looking a bit self conscious in their
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