Disclosures Tribunal: Roll away the stone

At one stage during the 97 days of hearings at the Charleton Tribunal into “protected disclosures ... and certain other matters “ the presiding judge likened the process to “rolling a very large stone up a very large mountain like Croagh Patrick”.

Peter Charleton.

Mr Justice Peter Charleton’s deployment of analogy, metaphor and simile — namechecking populist sources as various as Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy, Woodward and Bernstein, Private Eye’s Dave Spart and on this occasion the classical reference to Sisyphus — has provided enjoyable interludes and insight to the many acres of evidence and submissions delivered by scores of witnesses and legal teams with upwards of 60 representatives in total.

With yesterday’s concluding submissions, to quote Prospero from The Tempest, these “revels are now ended” and the focus moves away from Dublin Castle and to the solitary work of the judge who must deliver his findings later this year.

Whatever those may be, the hearings have been an admirably transparent event and efficiently organised with swift access to information, privacy kept to an absolute and necessary minimum and a remarkable lack of stuffy protocols.

And for that Judge Charleton, and all his support staff, deserve the gratitude of the nation.