Adrian Hardiman believed profoundly in the democracy of political process

There is a lot of furrowed browed tut-tutting about the rise of an unhouse-trained ‘nihilist’ left, writes Gerard Howlin

THE finest accomplishment of the late Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman was the tally of 854 votes he secured as a defeated candidate in the local elections of 1985.

There is a coincidence in the timing of his passing and political events now. Having stood in the Dún Laoghaire ward of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for Fianna Fáil he had an enduring, but not un-sceptical respect, for the democratic mandate. It is spurious to attribute views to people you did not know but his considered judgments in the Supreme Court upheld the prerogative of the elected legislature over the pretensions of an unelected judiciary and unelectable chattering class.