WE HAVE LOST TWO INSTITUTIONS

MOVING TRIBUTES TO SOLICITORS WHO DIED WITHIN DAYS OF EACH OTHER

COLLEAGUES of solicitors Dermot ‘Doc’ Lavery and Frank McArdle, who died within days of each other last month, paid emotional and moving tributes to their late friends at Dundalk District Court last week.

Roger MacGinley spoke beautifully about the lives and times of the men who had each been practising law in Dundalk for more than 40 years.

Mr Lavery’s sons, Niall and Peter, who are both solicitors, were joined by Mr McArdle’s brother, Paul, also a solicitor, for the tributes last Wednesday morning.

Mr MacGinley spoke of behalf of the Louth Bar Association and sympathised with the Lavery and McArdle families on their loss. He said it was the first time in his experience the legal community in the town had come together like this to mark ‘a double loss’, deaths which had ‘greatly shocked’ the community.

He said that a friend remarked last week that ‘we have lost two institutions’ and ‘while neither Frank or Dermot ever had much time for institutions, there is a certain grain of truth in that remark’.

Mr MacGinley said Mr McArdle first went into partnership with the late Peter O’Connell before establishing his own practice at Roden Place and retired a couple of years ago. ‘Frank showed himself to be a skilful lawyer, a good friend and a co-operative colleague. The last thing he would have wanted was any kind of eulogy here or anywhere else but it is right and appropriate that we should express to the court, to his family, our deepest sympathies to his brother Jim (also a lawyer), John, Paul and all the McArdle family’.

Tributes will be paid, Mr MacGinley said, to Mr Lavery ‘in public and private in many places because of the many-sided aspects of his personality and his remarkable life.

‘It is appropriate that here, with his colleagues, we should focus on his legal career.

‘He qualified in 1969 and made his way back to Dundalk after a couple of years in Kilkenny. He was a superb lawyer, an outstanding advocate and a wise and prudent advisor and counsellor, because he knew and loved and understood humanity.

‘His son Peter, at the funeral Mass, said his father always favoured the Indians over the cowboys, but I have to tell Peter that in the 45 years in which Doc plied his trade, he saved many cowboys too!

‘It’s sometimes said that about a great man that he was all things to all men. I think that Doc was something better than that - he was the same to all men; whether you’re a Supreme Court judge or the neediest of the legal aid client, you were always met with the same instinctive courtesy, respect, humour and friendship’.

Mr MacGinley said that Mr Lavery was also a member of the Solicitors’ Benevolent Association and served a term as president of the Louth Bar Association. ‘He has bequeathed his family - our colleagues Niall, Peter, and Kate - outstanding qualities of character - integrity, humanity and charm.

‘I wish to express to them, on behalf of all of us here, our deepest sympathies on their tremendous loss of Doc, to their dear mother, Ger, and all the members of the family.

‘I express it on behalf of all those whose lives have been so enriched and enhanced by his’.

Judge Brennan said both solicitors were ‘passionate performers’ and ‘men of presence’ and referred to Mr McArdle’s athletic career and Mr Lavery’s life on the stage.

He said both men had distinguished themselves in ‘ the serious business of life’ and their loss ‘is greatly felt by their families and friends’.

‘ This is a great blow to the legal community in Dundalk, to those who are closest, family. It is indeed poignant that the last time I saw Mr McArdle was on the steps of this (court) building where we paid tribute to Mr Lavery at his funeral’.

Inspector Martin Beggy expressed his deepest sympathies to the McArdle and Lavery families and said both men were ‘courteous and professional’.

State solicitor, Fergus Mullen, expressed sympathy to both families also, on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions and his own family. He said that Mr Lavery had been described as ‘an impossible act to follow’. He said his only regret was that he had never had the opportunity to direct the accomplished actor Mr Lavery in a production.

He said Mr Lavery had, like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mocking Bird, ‘courage in law and life’.

Sheena Norton, on behalf of the Probation Service, expressed sympathy and the hope that Mr Lavery’s good work would be continued by his sons.

Finian Brannigan, on behalf of the Drogheda Bar Association, said the Dundalk colleagues’ deaths were ‘a terrible blow’ to the profession in Dundalk and added that Mr Lavery’s wit and humour made him the ‘doyen of Dundalk District Court’.

He said Mr McArdle had a great ability to put people at their ease.

‘I know that both these decent men will be dreadfully missed by all those whose lives they touched’. Alan Cooke on behalf of the Courts Service paid tribute to the courteous nature of both men.

Barrister Johnny McCoy, on behalf of the Eastern Circuit, spoke about Mr Lavery’s literary knowledge which he sometimes used in cases and how Mr McArdle was a man ‘you could always do business with’.

Paul McArdle thanked the speakers for their tributes, and Niall Lavery said the comments were greatly appreciated by the family.