IRELAND IN 1975 was a time of deep economic and political instability.
As a result of the global recession, thousands joined dole queues throughout Ireland, industrial unrest continued and housewives took to the streets to protest against rising prices.
On top of this economic crisis, the Troubles in Northern Ireland dominated the political agenda as politicians in both Britain and Ireland struggled to cope with the onslaught of violence.
During this turbulent time, the Coolock Community Law Centre opened its doors in the Northside Shopping Centre.
The centre was based on the community law centre model which originated in the United States during the 1960s as part of President Lyndon B Johnson’s war on poverty.
The idea behind it was that the law and lawyers would be used by communities to fight poverty, ignorance and disease.
An important method of empowering the local communities was to give control of such law centres to a management committee containing a built-in majority of community representatives, so that the centre remains responsive to local wishes and needs.
Today the majority of the voluntary board of directors of the Northside Community Law Centre represents local community interests.
This unique model was adapted in Coolock at a time where access to the law was very limited and the Irish government had not yet introduced a scheme of civil legal aid.
In the late 1970s in north Dublin, there were very few solicitors providing services in the area, there was a lack of knowledge of legal rights and there was a lack of self-belief among the ordinary people, due to poverty and social disadvantage.
While there had been important legal developments at this time, particularly the introduction of legislation concerning employment rights and family law, no real attention had been paid as to how people without information or money could access these rights.
The development of the centre opened up access to the law in a ground-breaking way.
It ensured that all members of the community had access to legal advice, information and representation in a number of areas of law including employment law, housing law, family law, social welfare law and consumer law.
Since that time many dedicated individuals, from the local community and from the legal profession, have worked in and have volunteered their services to the centre, giving information and advice and representing many local people.
The work also involved educating, empowering and organising the community around legal issues and campaigning for law reform.
Examples of this work include the centre’s active role in the divorce campaign and in establishing the Money Advice and Budgeting Service in the 1990s.
In 2003, the centre was renamed the Northside Community Law Centre, to reflect the fact that it now represented clients residing in the wider catchment area of the Dublin North-Central and Dublin North- East electoral constituencies.
The communitylaw centre has continuously sought to ensure that the most vulnerable people in our society have a voice and are heard in all legal proceedings.
The continued importance of our work can be highlighted by our successes in a number of recent High Court cases including Caroline McCann v Judge of Monaghan District Court and others (June 2009)and Pullen v Dublin City Council (October 2009).
The McCann case raised awareness of the harshness and unfairness of the Irish debt enforcement system and challenged the constitutionality of the procedure which allowed a person to be sent to prison without ever having been brought before a court and without representation.
As a result of the case, the law relating to imprisonment for failure to pay a civil debt was declared unconstitutional and this has resulted in legislation that ensures vulnerable people’s constitutional rights, including their right to fair procedures and legal representation, are protected.
The Pullen case involved a family who faced eviction from their home by the local authority where the eviction process used does not provide for an independent inquiry into the circumstances of the case and the District Court cannot inquire into the facts of the case.
In December 2008, the High Court held that such an eviction process interfered with the family’s right to respect for their private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.
The Pullens sought an injunction to prevent the eviction, however, the High Court held that the only remedy available to people who have had their convention rights infringed is an award of damages.
Many of the centre’s clients are unable to access private solicitors through poverty and other factors including lack of education, literacy problems, and a sense of intimidation by the legal system.
Given the difficult economic times, it is no surprise that our clinics are today busier than ever, and we thank the more than 40 solicitors and barristers that volunteer with us to meet the demand and all those who volunteered over the past years.
We have also established a community mediation service which trains volunteers from our community as mediators who then help to resolve disputes within the community itself.
Last year was a record year for the law centre, where we assisted more than 2,700 clients with their legal queries, provided training and education to more than 300 individuals and offered mediation and conflict coaching to more than 100.
This high volume of work coming to the centre is evidence that the centre is as necessary now as it was in 1975, if not even more in our current difficult economic times.
In these times of great competition for scarce resources, we hope we can rely on the Government and all of our supporters to continue to support the centre.
Colin Daly is managing solicitor in the Northside Community Law Centre