Peace appears to have broken out between the Minister for Defence and the Law Society. At the society's grand ball, where 600 leading lights danced the night away at Blackhall Place last Friday, Michael Smith was seen in lengthy and friendly conversation with director general Ken Murphy. It will be recalled that the two clashed vigorously in the media when the Minister referred to solicitors as gold diggers in their pursuit of army deafness work and Murphy argued that they shouldn't be used as scapegoats. When the Minister was last at the society's headquarters, for the annual Law Society dinner in March, he heard its president, Laurence K. Shields, call for an independent judiciary to vindicate the rights of unfortunate citizens who had been injured by the State.
Indeed, so relaxed was the atmosphere at the ball that speculation spread that the Minister and the director general were discussing the transfer of some army barracks, now up for sale, directly to the solicitors in part payment of fees due in deafness cases. The ball was held to celebrate the 20 years the society has been in Blackhall Place, and those there included the Chief Justice Mr Liam Hamilton; the newly-appointed head of the Law Reform Commission, Mr Justice Vivian Lavan; the Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne; the Director of Public Prosecutions, Eamonn Barnes, the Chief State Solicitor Michael Buckley and the new president of the Circuit Court, Mr Justice Esmonde Smyth.