HOW DID A JUDGE MANAGE TO BREAK RULES HE WROTE?
SUPREME Court judge Séamus Woulfe once infamously described plans to reform the judiciary as a ‘dog’s dinner’.
But one week after the notorious golf dinner in Clifden, Co. Galway, the former attorney general is under intense public and judicial scrutiny.
As attorney general until two months ago, he played a key role in drafting the original Covid-19 guidelines we have all had to adhere to, so eyebrows were raised, to say the least, when it emerged that he was at the dinner with 80 other people in breach of those rules.
Former chief justice Susan Denham has been asked to write a report on Judge Woulfe’s attendance at the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner at the Station House Hotel in Clifden, at which many politicians were also present.
She has been asked to consider a number of questions, including whether the newly appointed Supreme Court judge should have accepted the invitation, and whether he should have agreed to dine with politicians at all, given the separation of powers which aims to ensure the courts are free from political interference.
In addition, she will question whether he should, in all the circumstances, have left when he saw for himself ‘the situation prevailing’, and whether he should perhaps have played golf and skipped the dinner.
She cannot fire him as a judge, as that authority rests solely with the President, and only then after a vote by both Houses of the Oireachtas, under the Constitution. And unless he resigns himself, he can only be removed for ‘stated misbehaviour’, which is generally viewed as being related to the administration of justice rather than public health breaches.
Within the Four Courts, there are mixed feelings about the judge, a keen sports fan who is married with two children and lives in Clontarf, Dublin.
‘There’s a general feeling that he has got himself into a whole load of trouble he didn’t need,’ said one highly placed individual. ‘But around the corridors, there would be a lot of sympathy. He is a lovely man, who people have a lot of fondness for, because of his personality and character.
‘I’m not hearing calls for his resignation in here. The public might be calling for him to fall on his sword, but a lot of them have broken the rules too.’
The highly placed individual added: ‘I’m sure he got it in the ear from [Chief Justice] Frank Clarke; I wouldn’t have any doubt about it, especially with him only being in the door.’
However, one senior counsel expressed himself to be deeply uncomfortable about Judge Woulfe’s decision to attend the golfing event.
‘The number-one rule of being a judge is that you have to be above reproach,’ said the senior lawyer. ‘He is a very popular man, but it is going to be difficult for him now to put this behind