Aoife Moore: Seamus Woulfe digs his heels in as judicial colleagues squirm

If you're losing when you're explaining, Justice Seamus Woulfe hasn't had a win in months, says Aoife Moore

Chief Justice Frank Clarke (left) with then-Attorney General Seamus Woulfe 

If you're losing when you're explaining, Justice Seamus Woulfe hasn't had a win in months.

The letters published on Monday night between Woulfe and his boss, the Chief Justice Frank Clarke are stark and portray a man who is either completely removed from the mood of the public or has dug his heels in so far he can't golf his way out of the rough.

It's no wonder he writes at length about how he would like the correspondence between the two kept out of the public eye, every time he tries to defend himself he only seems to drive his public profile further into the ground.

After he met with a group of judges after Golfgate, one source said that the judges felt that Woulfe "just doesn't get it" and I'd imagine Chief Justice Clarke, along with the rest of the Irish public, feels very much the same.

Confidence in Mr Woulfe is damaged and as Mr Clarke was at pains to point out, damages the Supreme Court by association.

"A failure by a judge to observe these principles can lead to serious damage to public trust in, and respect for, the judiciary. That has occurred in this case, at a time when trust and confidence in the institutions of the State, and social solidarity more generally, is particularly important," he wrote to Woulfe.

This importance hasn't diminished in the months over which Mr Woulfe's fate has dragged out. The public outrage surrounding Golfgate was seeded in the fact that it made the public feel like they were following the rules set by people who didn't think those rules applied to them. 

The resignations that followed immediately after from Dara Calleary and Jerry Buttimer were an acknowledgment they would struggle to credibly inform the public about the importance of Covid-19 guidelines after they had shown poor judgment.

Seamus Woulfe. File picture: Gareth Chaney Collins

Seamus Woulfe has consistently shown he cannot let the issue lie and refutes such assertions: "To the extent to which you consider that I attended an event which did not comply with the objectives of the Regulations and the Guidelines or somehow did not respect the spirit of the Government policy, I respectfully differ." 

It seems Dara and Jerry feel they were at a very different event from Seamus Woulfe.

For the court, this is a huge embarrassment and one the Chief Justice clearly wanted to avoid even if Seamus Woulfe didn't. The Irish public learning that Woulfe cannot be reprimanded without his consent is unlikely to promote the state's highest court as a beacon of respectability or bolster public confidence in the administration of justice.

Likewise, having someone who sits on the state's highest court compare media coverage of an event in the public interest to the "Ku Klux Klan" is unlikely to promote its ability to judge the public mood.

One can only imagine that any reception from his new colleagues is likely to be frosty at best and will bring further unwanted attention to the court when Woulfe finally takes his seat on the bench in February.

The impact on the court seems to be far from Woulfe's mind; despite taking "extensive advice from a number of people, I have come to the conclusion that I should not resign".

One might assume that this extensive advice didn't come from his new colleagues.

A timeline of Séamus Woulfe's Golfgate involvement 

June 2017: Séamus Woulfe becomes Attorney General to the Fine Gael-led minority government.

June 2020: He is replaced by Paul Gallagher on the formation of a new government.

July 23, 2020: He is appointed a Supreme Court judge following an application to the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.

August 19, 2020: The Oireachtas Golf Society dinner takes place in the Station House Hotel in Clifden, Galway, with 81 guests in attendance, just one day after Covid-19 restrictions change. The new restrictions limited indoor gatherings and events to six people from no more than three households. Mr Woulfe attends alongside then-Minister for Agriculture Dara Calleary, EU Commissioner Phil Hogan and a raft of past and present politicians.

August 20, 2020: The report on the dinner is published by this newspaper and widespread public anger ensues.

August 25, 2020: The Supreme Court requests former Chief Justice, Susan Denham, to commission a report on Séamus Woulfe's attendance at the dinner, including the question of whether he should have accepted the invitation and whether "he should in all the circumstances have left the hotel in light of the situation prevailing".

Seamus Woulfe.

September 8, 2020: Justice Denham meets Séamus Woulfe and his legal adviser. "Mr Justice Woulfe stated that he had not been aware of any breaches of the Regulations or Guidelines at that stage," the report states. 

"He stated that he had racked his brain to see if there was something he had missed. Mr Justice Woulfe stated that he knew that there had to be a process to bring in a Statutory Instrument, to bring about a legal change that there should only be six persons at an event instead of 50. He stated that he knew that such a change could not happen automatically."

October 1, 2020: The transcript of the non-statutory Review by Ms Justice Susan Denham is published and Mr Woulfe is widely criticised for his attitude towards the "very benign event" and comparing the media to the Ku Klux Klan. She concludes however, it would be disproportionate that he should be asked to resign.

October 2, 2020: A group of senior judges met with Séamus Woulfe's at the Four Courts to express concerns over how he handled the 'Golfgate' affair. Sources say it appeared Mr Woulfe "didn't get" the importance of the issue.

October 5, 2020: A meeting between Séamus Woulfe and the Chief Justice to discuss the matter is postponed the night before, with Woulfe citing "personal reasons".

October 9, 2020: Another scheduled meeting between the two men is deferred on medical grounds cited by Mr Woulfe.

October 13, 2020: The meeting with Mr Justice Clarke as part of the “informal resolution” process is deferred for the third time, again at Séamus Woulfe’s request.

October 15, 2020: Séamus Woulfe and the Chief Justice's meeting is cancelled for a fourth time after the Chief Justice was shown a “cogent medical report”.

November 5, 2020: They meet and discuss his attendance at the dinner.

November 9, 2020: Correspondence between the Chief Justice and Séamus Woulfe is published with both agreeing that he will not sit on the Supreme Court until February 2021 and will donate his salary to charity in the months in between.