The bar, Fine Gael in wigs? - Village Magazine

24 July-August 2023 July-August 2023 PB

Leo Varadkar as Minister for Trade

and Employment was well placed to

help Arthur Cox solicitors by providing

testimonies for high-net-worth non-

nationals seeking to obtain citizenship

It could hve been you

The bar, Fine

Gael in wigs?

Actually it used to be more blatant, though

attending fundraisers is still controversial

since politicians determine legal preferment;

and Village wonders who attended the recent

one for Varadkar in Castleknock

By Suzie Mélange

ine Gael has always been the party of

lawyers, if not always of law and order,

and indeed the Law Library is the only

place where the old nonsense about

spotting a member just because of the

way they walk down the street still approximates

truth. Former Party trustee Frank Callanan, a well-

liked senior counsel, once said that it was very

“un-Fine Gael” to be implementing measures to

cut legal costs.

Big law ﬁrms like Arthur Cox like to hedge their

bets between the big parties, especially when

Fine Gael are enduring wilderness years and the

largesse is being dispensed by Fianna Fáil. In

2012, an article in Village noted its then managing

partner, Pádraig Ó Ríordáin was a key advisor to

the Fianna-Fáil-led-government [and even

obtained some untendered work], during the

ﬁnancial crisis, though Ó Ríordáin noted, “I had

never met Brian Lenihan or Brian Cowen before I

started working for the State. I’m not party-

political at all”.

Anyway, in recent years it appeared Fine Gael

was back in the ascendant in Cox’s, with

discomﬁting pressure on its ranks of solicitors to

buy rae tickets, the favoured fundraiser these

unglamorous SIPO-constrained days for Fine

Gael. Leo Varadkar, as Minister for Trade and

Employment, was well placed to help the ﬁrm by

providing testimonies for high-net-worth non-

nationals seeking to obtain citizenship.

Not that Cox’s will ever supplant McCann

Fitzgerald, the most Fine Gael ﬁrm having been

founded by Alexis FitzGerald, a Fine Gael

politician.

Actually, the Fine Gael Party and its leaders

now tend to be represented by a small ﬁrm, Kevin

O’Higgins, led by a scion of the family of the

namesake Minister for Justice murdered in 1927.

In December last year, the Taoiseach held his

annual constituency dinner to boost his election

war-chest and, with well over a hundred

supporters in attendance and admission at €200

a plate, it was lucrative.

Miriam Lord reported in the Irish Times that “a

large contingent from lobbying and PR ﬁrms

forked out for the occasion along with a big

turnout from members of the law library”.

At a similar dinner in 2021, the presence of so

many barristers was put down to the fact that the

then Tánaiste was reverting to being Taoiseach

and would have to pick an attorney general

though actually it was already sewn up for Rossa

Fanning, only the second Fine Gael attorney

general in the last 25 years (after Séamus Woulfe

who didn’t work out too well).

A recent Irish Times article by John McManus

described Fanning as “not seen to be political”

but when, for example, Village broke the story

about Varadkar unlawfully leaking the heads of

terms of the NAGP contract it was Fanning who

for some reason contacted Paddy Cosgrave to

pressurise him to keep the reportage civilised.

Anyway, a lot of judicial appointments were in

the ong and attendees were not deterred by

what happened the last time there was a dinner

of potential M’Luds.

Because in June 2019 Phoenix Magazine

named the dozens of barristers who attended

aFine Gael fundraising dinner. The cost for the

nosh-up was €600 (senior counsel) or €400

(junior) in racey Suesey Street restaurant.

Justice minister Charlie Flanagan presided at a

table with Pat McCann (the main organiser),

Jonathan Kilfeather, Patrick Leonard, Frances

Meenan, Michael Binchy, Martin Fitzgerald,

Conor Lehane, Frank Callanan and Conor Bourke.

Michael D’Arcy (since transformed into

the chief executive of the Irish Association of

Investment Management) headed a table with

Garrett Cooney, James Cross, Elizabeth Donovan,

Patrick McGrath, Niall O’Driscoll, Jarlath Ryan,

Terence Coghlan, Rossa Fanning and John Ferry.

Those at table three were Gareth Robinson,

Margaret Nerney, Paul O’Neill, David McGrath,

James Nerney, Ian Boyle Harper, Gerard Meehan

and Paul Murphy.

The other three tables featured Cian Kelly,

Ciarán Toland, Tony McBride, Paul O’Grady,

Bernard McCabe, Paul Hutchinson, Mark Dunne,

Robert O’Reilly, Miriam Reilly, Séamus Clarke,

Lorcan Staines, Joseph O’Sullivan, Peter Shanley,

James O’Donnell, Shelley Horan, James

Geoghegan, Hugh McDowell, Aisling Mulligan,

Julie O’Leary, Barry Ward, Shane O’Callaghan,

Daragh Breen and Rob Lowe.

To the best of my knowledge none of these

eminences have been appointed to the High

Court in the subsequent four years. And that is a

credit to Fine Gael and potentially healthy for our

democracy.

It is also worth stating that those who attended

the Castleknock dinners risked, if outed, being

less likely to be considered for career

advancement because of a possible perception

of nepotism.

It appears the patriotic new breed just love Fine

Gael for its Fine Gaelness.

Still, It would be good to get the names of those

seated for the more recent fundraiser, just for

completeness and the record. Lines are open.

NEWS