THE Government had given Judge Brian Curtin a week — which many considered a throwing down of the gauntlet to the beleaguered Tralee judge — but in the event, he had responded within three days.

THE dilemma facing members of the Cabinet, as they meet today to consider the Judge Brian Curtin affair, involves a fundamental question of what action to take following the collapse of the pornography case against him and where to go from here?

UNELECTED, unaccountable and almost completely untouchable.

THE starting point for any analysis of events in Tralee Circuit Court yesterday must be a reiteration of the fact that Judge Brian Curtin went into court this week enjoying a presumption of innocence and he came out of the courtroom yesterday afternoon with his innocence unimpugned in any way in law.