The District Court judge who was at the centre of a dispute with the Southern Law Association last February has said the solicitors involved acted in breach of the Constitution. Judge Michael Pattwell was speaking on RTE Radio 1 yesterday.
The dispute, which involved the Southern Law Association representing solicitors in Cork city and county, was caused by Judge Pattwell committing a solicitor to jail for contempt of court. This followed an exchange between the solicitor, Ms Marguerite Fennell, and the judge during a family law case.
The association then said its members would not attend his court until the order was lifted. The issue was finally resolved when the order was vacated.
However, Judge Pattwell said yesterday: "What was not resolved was the action of the Southern Law Association."
He said that making the issue public, when it involved a family law case, was a breach of law, and continued: "In actual fact the way it was dealt with was a breach of the Constitution because a couple of solicitors came into my chambers the following day and told me if I did not change an order that I had made they would set in motion a consequence, a walk-out.
"If that happened in a Third World country and we heard of anyone going in to a judge and holding some form of threat to his head, be it a gun or otherwise, and saying change your order or else we'd be calling for Amnesty International . . . well, that happened to me down in Cork and no one called for Amnesty and it was as much a threat to get a judge to change an order he had made.
"Whether I was wrong or right didn't matter. If I was wrong there's a judicial process to deal with it.
"I have been found wrong in the High Court and I have no problem with it. There is a judicial process to go over my head if I'm wrong and I welcome that."
The president of the Southern Law Association, Mr Simon Murphy, said the association would not comment on Judge Pattwell's remarks. "When he vacated the order against Marguerite Fennell it was agreed that only one statement would be made to the media. We won't breach that, so we won't be saying anything."
Judge Pattwell told RTE he had qualified as a solicitor as a mature student, and had then become a judge.
Admitting that at the time judicial appointments were political, he said he would be bluffing if he said he got a phone call out of the blue, and added: "I pestered a friend of mine to get me appointed and I was appointed."