This article is from page 6 of the 2011-10-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
COURT FACILITIES in Clare have been “a total mess”, with the exception of Ennis and Kilrush, according to retiring Judge Joseph Mangan.
The Judge made the statement in his first interview since stepping down from the bench at Ennis District Court on Friday.
He told The Clare People that Killaloe court – which currently sits in Ennis – should be reopened and that courts should also return to Ennistymon (they currently sit in Kilrush). Over the years, while on the bench, the judge repeatedly hit out at conditions in various courtrooms across the county, due to the cold conditions and poor acoustics.
“One would have to say in Ennis facilities are perfectly satisfactory. One could say the same about Kilrush. Gort isn’t bad. After that, the facilities that we have had in this district were a total mess,” he said.
“When the District Court was set up at the foundation of the State, it was intended to be an accessible court. It’s the only court that most people see.
“When I first came to the district, I would have wanted to keep every venue open, but unfortunately the reality is there are no votes in courthouses. There are no votes to be got out of making courthouses an issue.
“When a court venue is closed, you will from time to time observe a local representative publicly shedding tears over the fact. Ask any one of them if they every put their head inside a court in the 30 years before the closure to observe the conditions in which work had been done. I believe that any society that allows justice to be administered in such appalling conditions has very little respect for itself as a nation,” he said.
“In retrospect, I think it was right to close a number of the outlying courts (in Clare) because of the conditions in which they had to function and the lack of realistic expectation of anything being done about them in the foreseeable future.
“I don’t believe it would be right to close any of the existing ones, including Killaloe and Athenry. Killaloe is temporarily closed and I know there is a wish on the part of the Courts Service to close it permanently. In fact, the expense caused to the guards by closing Killaloe would probably double the saving made by the courts service by closing it,” he said.