In this important study of Irish barristers, Niamh Howlin examines all aspects of life and practice at the Bar, from call to the Bar to the taking of ‘silk’, while also exploring the role of the profession within the state and its relations further afield. In an introductory chapter, she points the reader to the historiography of the legal profession in Ireland and outlines the state archives and Bar records upon which she has drawn. Her research is enriched by empirical evidence obtained in twenty-nine semi-structured interviews with current and past practitioners at the Irish Bar, conducted on the basis of anonymity. These included men and women; Dublin and circuit practitioners; barristers from ‘legal families’ and those with no prior legal connections; and barristers from different religious, educational or political backgrounds. Her sample also reflects some diversity in terms of sexual orientation and disability. The empirical element of the book makes it something of an analogue of Morison and Leith’s Barrister’s world (1992), but Howlin also provides an extensively-researched account of the development of the structure, operation and regulation of the Irish Bar in its historical context.
The book begins at the formation of the state in 1921 and ends in 1999, thus capturing in historical perspective a number of key changes in legal practice that occurred in the 1990s. Following on from four introductory chapters explaining the structure of the Bar and career progression within it, chapter five examines the gender, religion, age, educational background and dynastic connections of members of the Bar, supported by statistical analysis where available. From a small elite of Protestant, middle-class, Trinity College-educated men, mostly Dubliners, the Bar grew exponentially — it has now more than 2,000 practising members — and became somewhat more diverse as the century progressed, against a background of political change, greater educational opportunity and slowly evolving attitudes to women.
The internal working of the Bar is probed in chapters six to twelve by reference to a number of themes, beginning with the working lives of barristers, their ‘stresses and supports’ and making a living at the Bar. Thus, the author lays bare the financial and professional pressures that barristers faced as self-employed members of an independent referral Bar, depending on briefs from solicitors and working in the communal context of the Law Library or on circuit. The supply of work could vanish overnight not only as a result of solicitors’ briefing decisions but also because of legislative or social change. Equally, new types of work could be created, as at Ireland’s accession to the European Union in 1973 or its ratification of the E.C.H.R. in 1953. Procedural change also impacted barristers: the elimination of juries in civil trials, for example, or the granting of rights of audience to solicitors, or the use by the state of tribunals of inquiry. Similarly, technological changes and the online accessibility of the law have radically altered barristers’ working lives. Even the nature of a ‘brief’ has changed: as one interviewee noted, one now ‘needs a wheelbarrow to carry it round’ (p. 360).
Howlin considers the relationships that barristers must navigate, with judges, other barristers, solicitors, and clients. The tradition of collegiality at the Bar barely conceals the fact that each member of the Bar is in competition with the rest. She probes the perennial problem of barristers’ legal inability to sue solicitors for payment of fees and deals at some length with the historical development of legal aid for criminal and civil cases in Ireland.
Chapter nine (‘The gendered Bar’) returns to a theme opened in chapter 2, noting that despite the first women being called to the Irish Bar in 1922, women only joined the Irish Bar in significant numbers from the late 1970s, while a ‘presumption of maleness’ and an ambient male culture lingered longer still — some would say to this day. For example, Howlin notes that between 1921 and 1999, Bar Council chairs were all men, except for one (Mella Carroll). Particular challenges facing women barristers, such as some solicitors’ relative readiness to brief them in family law cases but not in criminal law or high-profile commercial law cases, and the difficulty of combining having children with sustaining a viable practice, are also discussed.
The Irish Bar is considered from external reference points too, such as its relations with other Bars or its contributions to public life in Ireland and beyond. A key chapter in terms of external assessment is the final one, which deals with regulation of the Irish Bar and its successful defence of its independence when under intense scrutiny from the Fair Trade Commission (1984–90), a scrutiny process that did, however, result in stronger internal disciplinary processes.
This excellent and thoroughly researched book achieves its stated aim of bridging the gap between professional rhetoric — ‘Bar lore’ — and historical research. The empirical and archival evidence is skilfully and engagingly woven together to create fresh insight into what the Honourable Mr Justice Ronan Keane once intriguingly described as the ‘Cinderella of the professions’ (p. 362), whilst the impressive bibliography and extensive references will enable further work on the numerous themes explored here.
