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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