Barristers in Ireland
An evolving profession since 1921
Niamh Howlin
"This well written portrait of the Irish Bar provides for the first time a comprehensive insight into a professional which has always had very considerable influence in Ireland ... It is scarcely surprising that many controversial issues have ended up in the courts and many members of the bar have been to the fore in Irish political affairs. Yet relatively little is known about the profession as a whole or the challenges of working in it. This book provides a serious overall analysis of the bar from a wide range of perspectives ... Notwithstanding the rigorous academic research and use of multiple sources, this book's style is lively and very readable ... For the more modern era, the books uses the results of structured interviews with thirty anonymised barristers. The book reveals in direct speech the drank and often varying reflections (and complaints) of barristers regarding the challenges of their professional across a long time frame ... The book details the icy relations between the Irish and Northern Irish Bars after the unfortunate separation of the two in 1925 and the gradual thawing in relations much later ... An important theme of the book is how the profession has evolved significantly since 1921 ... The book also records the impressive contribution of barristers to public life, citing two presidents, several Taoisigh, and other senior politicians who were barristers ... Handsomely produced by Four Courts Press, with many photographs, this book will be of particular interest to the Bar the solicitors' profession, judges and those considering joining the legal profession, but also to a wider audience as well." Bláthna Ruane SC, The Irish Juror 2024
"This book considers various aspects of the profession of barrister in Ireland. It is timely in that it encapsulates the evolution of the practice, side by side with the development of the new state, from 1921 onwards ... In a very interesting chapter, the author examines the working lives of barristers, from their professional attire to the nature of the work undertaken. The book portrays the unvarnished truth of the difficulties of making a living at the Bar ... The book sets out in some details the 'camaraderie' and 'communal life' of the practising barrister on circuit ... Posterity owes a debt of gratitude to Dr Howlin, for without her painstaking research the stories and meanderings of a variety of practitioners would have been lost with the passage of time. This research is vital not only to underpin the basis of the work and aid its credibility but also to add colour and animation to the characters and events. This is an excellent book and will be of interest not only to lawyers but also to anyone interested in the development of the Irish state from its foundation and the impact which one professional body had on its evolution." James Meighan, History Ireland, May/June 2024
“This book is the history of the ‘senior’ branch of the legal profession from 1921 to the turn of the millennium … Although the memoirs of famous, successful barristers are extensively referenced, the day-to-day life and career progress of practitioners is illustrated and fleshed out successfully by the infuriatingly but probably necessarily anonymous interviews with barristers past and present. These confessions paint a picture of the exhilarating highs and devastating lows of a career at the Bar, which are unfamiliar to anyone who has never attempted to be a barrister … this fascinating study [is] … the perfect gift for practitioners or anyone thinking of a career as one.” Vandra Dyke, the Sunday Independent, 19 November 2023.
