Two barristers who successfully challenged the requirement to make a declaration of service to Queen Elizabeth before being made Queen's Counsel in Northern Ireland were yesterday called to the inner bar at the Supreme Court in Dublin to become Senior Counsel.
Mr Barry McDonald QC and Mr Seamus Treacy QC both objected to making the declaration of service to the Queen. They have been practising as barristers in the North for 20 years.
A 78-year-old former secretary of the Industrial Development Authority was also among several barristers called to the inner bar in the Supreme Court yesterday.
Mr Paddy Long, who qualified as a barrister in 1986 and entered the Law Library to practise in 1987, joined the civil service in 1939, the year the second World War began.
At 18 he was acting private secretary to the then Minister for Defence, Oscar Traynor. He later served on the personal staff of a number of ministers in the first coalition government, including Dr T. F. O'Higgins and Gen Sean McEoin.
When Dr Thelka Beer became the first woman secretary of a Government Department, Mr Long was appointed as her private secretary.
He joined the IDA when it became an independent State-sponsored body in 1970 and was its press manager and secretary for many years.