Sir, – Mary Carolan reports on research that confirms the overwhelmingly middle-class background of Supreme Court judges over the last century (“Middle-class dominance on Supreme Court may have impacted rights decisions, says law lecturer”, News, December 7th). Some 62 per cent of the 74 members of the court were found to have attended fee-paying schools and 70 per cent attended University College Dublin.
This can hardly be considered remarkable or surprising. Until 1967, every secondary school in Ireland was a fee-paying school. Assuming Supreme Court judges were at least 50 years of age on appointment and some older, it would have taken until at least 2005 before any candidate for the Supreme Court could have been educated at a non-fee paying secondary school.
Attendance at UCD by bar students who later became Supreme Court judges can hardly be a surprise. During the 20th century, the convention was to have four Catholic judges and one Protestant judge on the Supreme Court.
Due to the religious stratification of university education at the time, Protestant judges went to Trinity College Dublin and the Catholic background judges almost inevitably went to “Catholic” universities. UCD had the predominant law faculty that fitted the bill, being in Dublin.
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Today the situation is entirely different, with numerous third-level institutions providing legal education.
Hardly anyone would not wish to see a more diverse and inclusive Supreme Court membership today but research must take into account the actual historical background. – Yours, etc,
CIARAN O’MARA,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.