Amid the acclaim for this week's three senior judicial appointments, colleagues who have sought promotion for years could only grin and bear it. One eminent SC remarked that he would have to consider a sex change, a new religion or membership of a minority party if he was to get preferment. On the last option, he said, the way things were going in his party, there was hope.
The appointment of Adrian Hardiman to the Supreme Court attracted the most attention in the Law Library for the simple reason that he had taken it. A relatively young man with a renowed and lucrative practice, he was, according to his peers, taking a huge drop in salary (to £98,305 a year) and giving up the hurly-burly of advocacy, at which he excelled, for what has to be a boring and sedentary life. It was pointed out to him that unlike marriage (now that we have divorce), there was no going back. A superior judge cannot return to the law library. But then, the same colleagues said, the opportunity for such advancement tends to arise only once in a lifetime, as some know to their cost.
The new chief justice, Ronan Keane, will be earning £113,429 and provided with a car and driver. There are two more Supreme Court appointments to come later this year.
Names being mentioned, already, are Judges Brian McCracken and Mella Carroll as well as James Nugent and Dermot Gleeson - but then they're in the wrong party.