Consider more solicitors for High Court bench, retiring judge urges

A High Court judge, noting only six solicitors have been appointed to the High Court bench, has urged the Government and the Judicial Appointments Commission to consider more solicitor appointments.

Mr Justice Robert Eagar, who practised as a solicitor for some 40 years, made the comments when responding to tributes on his retirement this week as the High Court judge.

Leading the tributes, newly appointed Attorney General Rossa Fanning said the judge’s “extensive and extraordinary” contribution to Irish public life was not confined to the law.

His service as chair of the Dublin Simon Community, founder of the Irish Refugee Council and member of the board of Ranelagh multi-denominational school were “all hallmarks of your personal attributes of devotion to public service and compassion for others”.

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Compassion was equally a hallmark of the judge’s judicial career, the Attorney said, noting his “very strong record of upholding the rights of persons who have been the victims of discrimination or sexual abuse.”

In reply to tributes, the judge said he was told by fellow solicitor Garrett Sheehan, before both were appointed as judges, that solicitors have to “walk through the valley” with their clients.

He said he spent his last 15 years as a solicitor representing priests and other religious and found that “very, very satisfying”.

“I think you get to know someone who is charged with a sexual offence in a different way, maybe a more compassionate way than society would see them, and I did walk through that valley with them as far as I could.”

He recalled that he and barrister David Keane, before their appointments as High Court judges, had been invited to the Department of Justice and asked what should be done concerning the right to seek asylum. He said both replied: “You set up a proper system. You do it quickly. If they fail, you throw them out.”

“Did they do that? No, never set up a proper system until there were 10,000 refugees in Ireland of various shapes and sizes, and eventually they set up some kind of system.”

He said he and other judges later succeeded in reducing a “huge” backlog in the High Court asylum list.

His most satisfying time as a judge was when appointed to the “emotionally-charged” and busy High Court bail list. He considered he had delivered his best judgments on judicial review cases, he added.

The judge warmly thanked his wife Monica, daughters Katie and Sarah, his High Court colleagues, registrar Caroline Murray, and all who worked with and for him throughout his career.

Educated at University College Dublin, Mr Justice Eagar was added to the Roll of Solicitors in 1978 and worked at the Office of the Chief State Solicitor until 1984. He was the prosecuting solicitor in a case against former Irish Independent editor Vinnie Doyle for a breach of the Official Secrets Act.

He joined Garrett Sheehan’s law firm in 1984 and became a partner in 1995. A specialist in asylum, criminal, extradition, child and human rights law, his clients included an anti-war activist, Mary Kelly, and fugitive solicitor Michael Lynn.

Appointed to the High Court in 2014, he was the judge in many high-profile bail cases including two boys accused of the murder of schoolgirl Ana Kriegel.

The judge had decided important litigation involving an issue of gender discrimination when he awarded €287,000 damages in 2017 to a female army captain, Diane Byrne, over her exclusion, due to being on maternity leave, from a promotion process for the position of Commandant, Mr Fanning said.

In another judgment in 2017, he refused to restrain a man’s prosecution for sexual assault over prosecutorial delay of 18 years.

Tributes were also paid by the Bar Council Chair Sara Phelan, Law Society President Maura Derivan, Courts Service CEO Angela Denning, Garda Chief Superintendent Patrick McMenamin and the judge’s long-serving registrar, Caroline Murray.