Legal profession has a lot to answer for

WHY do we, as a people, fall at the feet of the legal profession whenever it commands us? The proposed 30th amendment to the Constitution is in danger of being defeated by what is merely the most well-educated and best-spoken trades union in this country.

The caterwauling over the danger to Irish civil liberties is an appalling piece faux argumentation worthy of a closing argument in a seedy murder trial.

The same Irish legal profession and judiciary, now claiming to be fighting off the democratically-elected government’s proposed amendment, is the same profession and judiciary that colluded in the greatest ever crime against Irish citizens.

Every one of the powerless, often poor and uneducated children sent to our industrial schools were all sent after being sentenced by an Irish court in the presence of Irish solicitors. Who was safeguarding their civil liberties? The answer, as we all know in this country, is that those children could not afford to have their rights vindicated.

I will vote yes to this amendment for many reasons, but especially to challenge the unjust reality in this country that justice depends on being able to hand a barrister €20,000 on day one.

Can I suggest, if the amendment is passed, that the first matter inquired into, is why did the Irish judiciary collude in the organised abuse that was the industrial school system?

Declan Doyle

Lisdowney

Kilkenny