An Tain Arts Centre helped High Court sittings go ahead

PEOPLE passing An Táin Arts Centre in recent weeks could be forgiven for thinking that rehearsals for ‘ Twelve Angry Men’ were taking place inside as they spotted figures wearing wigs and gowns entering and exiting the Crowe Street building.

The truth facts of the matter, however, is that the building was being used to cater for the overspill from the nearby courthouse while the High Court was sitting in Dundalk.

Ms Catherine McGinley, President of the Louth Solicitors’ Bar Association, explains that due to the COVID-19 pandemic there were concerns that the sitting of the High Court might not have been able to go ahead.

‘ The High Court usually sits in Dundalk twice a year to hear personal injury cases but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it didn’t sit in June. It hadn’t sat the previous December because of an issue around the availability of judges which meant that the last time it sat in Dundalk was in June 2019 meaning that there was a huge backlog of cases.’

Concerns had been raised in

Dublin about legal practitioners and clients crowding outside courtrooms, so Catherine says that the Louth Solicitors’ Bar Association looked to see what could be done to facilitate the sitting. ‘We needed a space so that solicitors, counsel and clients could gather and maintain social distancing so they would only go to the courthouse when their case was called.’

The main auditorium of An Táin was used to facilitate this for the three weeks of the court sitting, which Catherine says cleared out the backlog of cases.