No surprise as ‘safe pair of hands’ takes top court post

TWO shocks in two days would have been too much for the system to bear. Less than 24 hours after Charlie McCreevy surprisingly acquiesced to take the European job, the Government made its other core appointment of the summer.

In marked contrast to the clamour of the previous evening, there were no raised eyebrows or dropped jaws when John Murray was named as the person to occupy the top judicial position in the land for the next seven years.

Murray's elevation was almost inevitable. For several months, speculation as to the identity of Ronan Keane's successor as Chief Justice mostly centred on the Limerick-born Supreme Court judge. He had the requisite judicial and academic experience, serving a total of 13 years as judge at the highest level, in the European Court of Justice and the Supreme Court to which he returned in 1999. He has also been Professor of Law at the University of Louvain.