what .~;t ;Jgt! u. eiti :~~" niay be re" garded as being in '<i condition more accurately defined as "not s::;ber", had to admit that serious crime was largely unknown in No. 1 Area and that its Justice. when the need arose, could be as stern as he was benien. JN those cases coming before him which involved some degree of domestic friction, J·ustice Wals·h made it a rule to intervene eai-ly in the case 'and force a settlement in open Court. Where this failed (as often it did) his suggestion that the parties on either side might care to see him in his private ro-om frequently resulted in a reconcilia!tion and the withdraw! of summons and cross-summons. -Disputes between neighbours were similarly dealt with, but not infrequently the Justice saw that the proceedings wer,e brought, not to decide the merits but "to have a day at the law" and the law was allowed to take its appointed course. A long day during which he might hear .and decide ten contested cases and summarily adjudicate ur:()n fii!ty ·:>r .sixty admissions foul'd the Justice at its end as attentive and as ir.terested as .he had been in the morning. He never affected the judical ignorance that has served its purpose in giving -openings to studied quips and eP,iigrams. He was the D.irling of the Irish Bench only in the sense that his repartee was as swift as that of his English contemporary but, unlike him, entirely unsought; the openinfs were not made-they made themselves. QNE anecdote can now be relateq as all the parties but 4'.l6, oue 1~!.l"c deutl. Many year:; ago Justice Walsh had the painfu) duty of _hearing at 1a special Court 'a -charge against •a youth then within a couple of months of entering a profession. The defendant was accompanied by his widowed mother, whose only child ·he was. Her distress visibly •affected the Justice who dealt with the •case in a manner that •met the merits but which would leave no record against the lad. When all was over, the mother thanked the Justice and sobbed "Will you see .it is keot out of the papers; my boy i~ ruined if this case is kno\vn". The Justice turned to the solitary reporter who had a.'.tended !he proceedings and said simply "This is something for you. Do what you can and ease a mother's heart". Re1membering many kindnesses at the Justice's hands, the· pressman whispered to him that the case was already forgotten and asked the Justice to be himseif the bearer of the good news to the weeping mother. Within a few minutes :a· thoroughly frightened and repentant youth and his rej-oidng mother made their way from 1,he Courtroom. There is much to be said in favour of Clause 42 which has raised such a storm in another pla:ce; widowed mothers whose -only sons go slightly off the rails have no assurance that they will coirr:e before Judges whose kindness · is equalled only by their humility. SOME readers m'ay remember the comical puzzle which Justice Walsh set the State away back in 1939 when he innocently enquired whether a prosecution for the alle~ed importation of
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