Sir, – As a retired circuit judge, albeit from another jurisdiction, I feel impelled to write in defence of Niall Collins TD. He may have been unwise, but by no stretch of the imagination can his conduct be characterised as improper.
He acted “by the book”, sending through defence solicitors a letter that would be referred to in open court – just as anyone else who knew the defendant, be they doctor or priest or social worker or neighbour, might have done.
Impropriety, indeed very grave impropriety, would have attached to any behind-the-scenes or private communication between TD and judge, but of such there is in this case no suggestion. Mr Collins, in my view, has been quite unjustly castigated.
As a footnote, during 22 years as a member of the judiciary of England and Wales, I received only one back-door approach on a sentencing issue. It came from a then retired, and now long dead, circuit judge in Ireland! – Yours, etc,
PETER LANGAN, QC
Catley Grove,
Long Ashton,
Bristol.
Sir, – What is being perhaps overlooked here is the power and influence of Oireachtas notepaper, which every TD is only too aware of.
Mr Collins regrets if writing a letter to the courts pleading for leniency for a convicted drug dealer suggested “anything other than total respect for judicial independence”.
What part of respect does Mr Collins not understand? Pleading leniency for a convicted drug dealer is an insult to the many families throughout Ireland that have lost parents and children, brothers and sisters to drugs and drug-related violence.
Show a little real respect, Mr Collins. – Yours, etc,
JOHANNA
LOWRY O’REILLY,
Moyne Road,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.