The surprise choice for Supreme Court benches

When RTE was considering new presenters for a pilot chat show last year, Adrian Hardiman SC, who was appointed to the Supreme Court this week, seemed an inspired choice. The qualities they hoped he would bring to television were his electric courtroom presence, brilliant mind, excellent interrogation skills, eloquence and media savvy; qualities honed to near-perfection over the past 25 years resulting in a high profile and bags more money than most of his Law Library colleagues.

As it turned out, however, he didn't live up to his billing. According to a source in broadcasting: "His dry run was choppy, with the audience feeling barracked rather than entertained. It was as if he didn't invest the time in it in advance, which would have brought out the performance of which he is undoubtedly capable."

In making the decision to join the highest court in the land, he is likely to have thought long and hard about many issues, maybe even asking himself whether, in this case, he could deliver; although for a man described by some, admirers and critics alike, as both vain and egotistical, the question may never have arisen.

Friends say it was the "fascinating challenge" of the bench that appealed; the opportunity to be in a position of influence; to shape the law in a broad way, rather than working it solely for the benefit of individual clients. There has been some surprise at the appointment - he has no judicial experience - and surprise also that he accepted at the relatively young age of 48.

"There is the possibility that he might not have been asked again," said one acquaintance. In the context of his political associations - he has been a PD supporter since the party's inception - this is a real possibility. Others believe that, given his standing, the chance would almost certainly have come again.

Hardiman's interest in the law was first aroused when, as a teenager, he became aware of Lord Denning, the renowned British judge. He was brought up in Coolock, Co Dublin, and his father was a teacher and later president of ASTI, the secondary teachers' union.

At Belvedere College he excelled at languages, studying Greek, Latin and Irish. (He is one of a small pool of barristers who have argued cases as Gaeilge.) History also interested him, and by the time he took his Leaving Cert it was this, rather than law, that he seemed likely to pursue.

Friendships formed in his first year of UCD led him towards law again and he began studying at King's Inns while doing a history BA. UCD in the early 1970s was a place where flowing tresses and left politics were all the rage. The close-knit group of Hardiman, Michael McDowell (now Attorney General), John McMenamin and Frank Clarke (both of whom went on to head the Bar Council) are remembered holding court in the Literary and Historical Society. Hardiman and McDowell could also be found loudly heckling speakers at left-wing meetings.

Suits - young Hardiman owned a pinstripe - were an alien concept for many of his ultra-liberal peers. Plenty of time for all that grown-up stuff when you left college, they reasoned. Hardiman and Co saw no point in wasting time. At college, the besuited Hardiman was successful in student politics, becoming president of the Students' Union. "He was deeply conservative," said one fellow student.

"He was overly loquacious and precocious and seemed to be already setting himself up for his future career."

Although his already entrenched economic conservatism was never to desert him, he would later prove himself far more liberal on many social issues.

His first allegiance was to Fine Gael, but the dire economic problems in the 1970s at the time of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition are thought to have pushed him in the direction of Fianna Fail. (He stood unsuccessfully for FF in local elections in Dun Laoghaire in 1985.)

In 1974 he was called to the Bar and in the same year, aged just 23, he married Yvonne Murphy, now a Circuit Court judge.

THE early 1980s saw him become better known to the public at large. In 1983 he was one of the main spokesmen for the campaign against the antiabortion amendment. Anne O'Donnell, of the National Women's Council, was on this committee with him. "He was very outraged at what he could see were clear legal problems that would occur down the road if the amendment was passed. He objected to the Constitution being used in this way," she said.

Hardiman also represented the Well Woman Clinic for seven years in its case against the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. He was also a long-term advocate of the removal of the constitutional ban on divorce.

He took silk in 1989 and four years later represented Pat Rabbitte and Des O'Malley during the beef tribunal, where his cross-examination of the Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, was widely admired.

Over the years he has built up what one colleague described as "an interesting practice, the kind we all aspire to". Many of his cases have been lucrative and high-profile, spanning areas such as extradition, libel and the bank strike.

In recent years he has spread himself thinly, discovering the downside of being a famous, successful barrister. People who seek his services expect him to turn up, not a junior. He has been described as abrupt, but conversely is said to be generous with his time and respectful towards potential when mentoring a protege.

One observer says Hardiman is "completely task-orientated".

"If you want to win your case, Hardiman is the best person to do the job, but if you want an `Aw, shucks' James Stewart-type performance, forget it."

He lives in Rathmines with his wife and three sons, including twins, one of whom is studying business and law at UCD. He reads voraciously, mainly historical works. He has no great interest in music but has been known to enjoy country and western tunes, particularly, it is said, Loretta Lynn's Coalminer's Daughter. The no-handouts work ethic of the song matches his own beliefs.

Hardiman socialises in the Dublin 4 haunts of the Shelbourne Bar, the Unicorn restaurant and Doheny and Nesbitt's pub. He enjoys travel, visiting India over Christmas, and is described as good company and a good raconteur. Switching from barrister-about-town to sombre Supreme Court judge may prove difficult, some colleagues believe.

There are said to be some High Court judges who are not entirely happy with Hardiman's appointment. These judges disliked his propensity for making himself available to the media, believing the barrister should be seen and heard only in the confines of the courtroom.

What saved him from serious pressure in this regard was his sheer ability, said one admirer. "When Hardiman stuck his head above the parapet he had authority, and it was often to the benefit of the Bar," he said.

Another colleague said: "What can be said of him is that when he turns his beady eye to any point of law he will not be bested. He makes up his mind, unassisted and very, very quickly."

Another felt he would be a breath of fresh air in the Supreme Court.

"He will be able to find, not just the legal answers but the human purpose in whatever comes before him."