A judge and the solicitors appearing before him who had been in dispute after a contentious case two weeks ago when a solicitor was held in contempt of court and fined £2 renewed their acquaintance yesterday at Midleton District Court in Co Cork. Judge Michael Pattwell was sitting for the first time since the row began.
It wasn't long before he held two people appearing before him in contempt of court.
The Southern Law Association decided not to appear before any of his courts in east or north Cork when he ruled last month that the solicitor, Ms Marguerite Fennell, was in contempt when she represented a client in a privately heard family law matter.
The judge said he had no option but to hold the solicitor in contempt, and the Southern Law Association responded by saying it would withdraw its services from all the courts in Judge Pattwell's jurisdiction.
There followed an attempt at conciliation, but it was unsuccessful until the judge appeared earlier this week at a court in Fermoy to agree a form of words.
In effect, this meant that Ms Fennell had purged her contempt and the order holding her in contempt, in legal terms, was "vacated".
When he sat yesterday at Midleton Judge Pattwell dealt with Ms Sharon Cronin and her partner, Mr Patrick Gleeson, who were before him on assault charges.
They wanted to plead guilty, but Insp Tom Hayes wanted to adjourn the matter because, as he told Judge Pattwell, even more serious charges might be about to come before the court.
Clearly, Ms Cronin was unhappy with this application and began to make her voice heard.
She was told to hold her silence, and when she ignored the judge he held her in contempt and she was led away from the court by gardai.
When her partner, Mr Gleeson, began to raise his voice he also was led away. The couple spent five hours in Garda custody but later returned and apologised to the judge, thereby purging their contempt.
