Free Legal Advice Centres: 50 years of delivering justice for all

DAVID Byrne, Denis McCullough, Vivian Lavan and Ian Candy are not, collectively, household names in Ireland, but they should be. It was these four remarkable people who 50 years ago established the Free Legal Advice Centres which helped bring access to justice to thousands of people in civil cases in Ireland..

The four founders each went on to enjoy successful careers: future attorney general and EU commissioner David Byrne; High Court judge Vivian Lavin (who died in 2011); Ian Candy, later a magistrate in Hong Kong, and Denis McCullough SC. They were still law students when the service was launched on the Gay Byrne radio show.