The former Chief Justice, Liam Hamilton, who died on November 29th aged 72, had a long and sometimes controversial career on the Bench, where he served for more than 25 years. But he had qualities of affability and humanity that ensured that he never became a controversial person.
Liam Hamilton, who was the eldest of five children of Richard and Mary Ellen (nee Lyons) Hamilton, was born in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, on January 30th, 1928. After leaving the local Christian Brothers' school, he joined the Civil Service as a clerical officer. After some years in the Department of Justice, he was assigned to work as a clerk in the High Court offices, while he also read for the Bar. He was called to the Bar in 1956.
He established a speciality in labour law and became a senior counsel in 1968. Two years later he acted for Neil Blaney when he was charged, together with Charles Haughey and others, in the District Court with conspiracy to import arms. Liam Hamilton's plea that there was insufficient evidence was accepted and the charge against Blaney was dismissed.
A member of the Labour Party, Liam Hamilton stood unsuccessfully in the Rathmines ward in Dublin at the local elections in 1967. When, six years later, Labour entered coalition government, he was their main legal adviser and in 1974 was rewarded with the vacancy in the High Court after Tom O'Higgins was promoted to Chief Justice.
In 1976, Liam Hamilton succeeded Mr Justice Denis Pringle as presiding judge of the Special Criminal Court. There had been some unease among those practising before the court about its readiness to accept the prosecution case. Liam Hamilton's approach was softer. He was careful to be courteous to the accused and avoided the common judicial gaucherie of addressing them by their surnames.
He was the presiding judge in 1978 when the Special Criminal Court wrongfully convicted Osgur Breatnach, Brian McNally and Nicky Kelly, of the Sallins train robbery. The verdict against Breatnach and McNally was later overturned on appeal and Kelly obtained a pardon. Liam Hamilton also presided at the trial of the man convicted of Lord Mountbatten's murder. When, in the High Court, a married couple challenged the law under which their income was aggregated for taxation purposes, Liam Hamilton found this conflicted with the article in the Constitution under which the State undertook to support the family based on marriage. His reasoning was characteristically uncomplicated, but could be criticised for disregarding the many advantages conferred on married couples under the tax system. Liam Hamilton refused to allow his lifestyle to be cramped by elevation to the Bench. Sociable and gregarious by nature, he often returned to the Law Library after his court had risen to chat with his former colleagues, something previously regarded as taboo for judges. Another departure from established practice was his willingness to sue a newspaper that had defamed him; he recovered damages in advance of a hearing. Previously, judges had relied on the law of contempt of court to protect them from allegations of disgraceful conduct.
Liam Hamilton enjoyed golf and was captain of the Milltown club in 1979. He was a soccer fan and a supporter of Shamrock Rovers. He was active in several charities, including the Knights of St Lazarus, which subscribes to the eradication of leprosy.
In 1985, Liam Hamilton was appointed President of the High Court on the nomination of the Labour Party, which was back in government. He inherited administrative chaos and large backlogs - the result of long-time under-funding of the legal system. He responded by listing large numbers of cases for hearing on a single day before each judge. This brought forward settlements and reduced the chances that judges would find that their lists had collapsed early in the day. The quicker throughput of litigation was immensely popular. He also pushed through a revision of the rules of procedure that had been long in gestation.
Liam Hamilton was involved in the ongoing controversy on abortion when, in 1986, he granted SPUC an injunction to prevent the dissemination of information on obtaining abortion outside the State. A notable judgment of his during this period was the recognition of a constitutional right of privacy in a case where journalists Geraldine Kennedy and Bruce Arnold sued the government because their telephones had been tapped on the orders of the minister for justice. It was characteristic that the right was not elaborated in any greater detail than was necessary to decide the case. The award of £20,000 apiece marked the seriousness of the matter.
In 1991, Liam Hamilton accepted an invitation to conduct a tribunal of inquiry into allegations of malpractices in the beef industry. One of the major issues was the relationship between certain ministers in Charles Haughey's government and the beef exporter Larry Goodman. The inquiry dragged on for 2 1/2 years and uncovered a litany of malpractice, tax evasion, frauds regarding public funds and government patronage towards Goodman. Liam Hamilton's report, which appeared in 1994, was characteristically diffuse, setting out great wads of evidence but drawing few definite conclusions and allocating less blame than many felt appropriate.
The situation was especially invidious as the judge was reporting on the behaviour of members of his government who would have to decide who should succeed Thomas Finlay as Chief Justice. Within months of the publication of the report the coalition government nominated Liam Hamilton as Chief Justice. The Labour ministers, who had made the allegations that had led to the inquiry, were less pleased and agreed to his elevation only with reluctance.
As Chief Justice for six years, Liam Hamilton's judgments were usually sound and the administrative efficiency with which he disposed of backlogs was admirable. It was a period of major reform in the judicial system as government agreed with the necessity of funding it properly. Liam Hamilton was determined to resist executive interference in any aspect of the judicial function and fought to ensure that the new Courts Service came under the control of the judiciary.
He was unfortunate that towards the end of his term events occurred which called into question the repute of the judiciary and whether it could be relied upon to police itself. In March 1999, the government asked him to inquire into the conduct of two judges over the early release of Philip Sheedy, who had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving. Mr Justice Hugh O'Flaherty had been involved in having the case relisted, while Judge Cyril Kelly had quashed the sentence without affording a proper hearing. Liam Hamilton found O'Flaherty's conduct had been inappropriate and unwise and had damaged the administration of justice, while Kelly had behaved in a manner unbecoming of a judge and had compromised the administration of justice. Both judges resigned.
The manner in which the Chief Justice had handled this matter was admired and applauded both within the profession and among the judiciary, who saw it as proof that they could be relied upon to be self-policing. Liam Hamilton's own judicial performance came into focus at the same time when it was revealed that the government, having been sued before the European Court of Human Rights, had agreed to pay damages arising out of a bankruptcy case in 1987 where he had failed to deliver judgment for six years after he had heard it.
It was a measure of the warmth and esteem in which Liam Hamilton was held among his colleagues that this did not damage his reputation as he moved towards retirement. His unstuffy demeanour and his approachability to high and low alike made him very well-liked. He never allowed his position to deprive him of his deep-seated sympathy for human frailty. The government showed its confidence in him when, shortly before his retirement in January this year, it invited him to chair an inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974. However, last October illness forced him to resign.
In 1998, as presiding bencher of King's Inns, Liam Hamilton admitted the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Prime Minister, Mr Blair, as benchers. He said he would dispense with the formality and call them Bertie and Tony. "The thing that worries me," he quipped, "is will they call me Hammo?"
Liam Hamilton is survived by his wife Maeve, daughters, Ruth (Dwan) and Julie (Turner), son William, brother David and sister Patricia (Kean).
Liam Hamilton: born 1928; died, November 2000