MORE THAN 200 barristers moved into a much smarter-looking Law Library at the Four Courts in Dublin last week following the first major refurbishment of this inner sanctum for 30 years.
The Bar Council of Ireland availed of a two-month summer recess in the legal calendar to repaint the main room and its two side rooms, replace carpets and chairs, and strip and repolish oak trestle desks, making them look as good as new.
Some rewiring was also carried out and all of the phones were cleaned and disinfected after years of use.
"The place is brighter and less smelly," one barrister said.
"It's a bit like the first day back at school with new pencils."
Bernard Rea, who oversaw the €500,000 project for the Bar Council, said the Law Library had suffered a lot of wear and tear over the years.
"We didn't want to change the place because it's a working library, just to make it more presentable."
Some 50,000 books and other items, such as court judgments, had to be removed from a mile of shelves before the ground-floor rooms and upper gallery could be scaffolded for the painters to come in.
The books and bookshelves were all cleaned before the books were put back in place.
The first-floor rooms of the Law Library, which provide working space for a further 330 barristers, are to be refurbished during next year's summer recess.
Other barristers have their own rooms in two modern buildings on nearby Church Street.
The Law Library dates from the 1920s, when the Four Courts were rebuilt after being damaged by shelling from Free State troops under the command of Michael Collins.
Their aim was to end an occupation by republicans at the outset of the Civil War.