Maybe those wretched ambassadors who have to report back to their governments on what is going on here can make sense of the O'Flaherty affair. I confess I cannot. You would have to be extraordinarily naive to believe that judges live in a world of irreproachable aloofness, in which they glide in and out of court, untouched by the human considerations of everyday life and the workings of ordinary bureaucracy. Much of a judge's work occurs in chambers, when counsel will deal with arguments and concerns which might never have seen the light of legal day, but are nonetheless factors which judges will take into account when sentencing.
Maybe Mr Justice O'Flaherty broke some rules of protocol when he spoke to the court registrar about re-listing the case of Philip Sheedy (for whom, I must confess, I am beginning to have some sympathy: what he did was appalling, but was an accident, and one of the cardinal rules of civic society is that we do not pursue the wrong-doer for the rest of his life). But as the former judge himself said: "Unless you condemn yourself to an ivory tower, in which case you're the worst in the world as well, these things happen. Your advice is sought and you give it."
Untoward remark
Not merely does that sentence explain one predicament the judge was in, it also explains the other in which he remains thoroughly mired: for a man who makes his living explaining things, his spoken English is sometimes poorly constructed. With the mob straining to tear him to pieces, looking for any untoward remark to loop around his neck and hoist him on high, he might have been better advised to restrict his explanations to a carefully-drafted written explanation.
Having chosen the route of the ad-hoc interview to explain his deeds, he certainly did himself no favours by excluding RTE. He is a free man, of course, and it is his right to choose who should interview him and who not. But he understands better than most the rule and the role of the separation of powers in civic society; and a comparable separation occurs in institutions within that civil society. The advertising section of this newspaper no doubt gnashed their teeth in anguish when I wrote of the bumptious, madcap witless qualities of BMW drivers; but they said nothing to me about it. I do my job; they do theirs; and neither would do either if we co-mingled powers and responsibilities.
The same is true of RTE. Merely because certain sections of the station allowed people to engage in a bit of O'Flaherty-bashing doesn't mean that is station policy, or that the newsroom has any power or influence over programme-makers elsewhere. Quite the reverse: were the newsroom even to try to get entertainment to work to a newsroom agenda, it would be told, very firmly, of the colonically irrigational uses to which that agenda could be put.
Disservice
Eamon Dunphy and The Last Word should be congratulated for their scoops in this business, but it is not because I no longer have any professional connection with that programme that I say that Hugh O'Flaherty did a disservice to his cause and to her by declining to give an interview to RTE's legal correspondent, the splendid Mary Wilson. Upon mature reflection, I'm sure he will come to understand this.
Again and again, we are getting the resignation issue wrong. Watching our political establishment trying to create a resignation culture is like watching drunken Swedes copying Riverdance. They can't do it; but they are convinced they can. So speaking to a court official to secure a re-listing of a case which, incomprehensibly, had been de-listed, mysteriously becomes a trigger for a baying lynch-mob in the Dail.
New job
Explain that, if you can, to your governments back home, ambassadors; and good luck to you. Good luck to Hugh O'Flaherty too. I'm not sure I envy you your new job, which probably consists of contrasting Dutch investment law in documents written in Dutch with their Greek equivalents.
A word or two of advice, your honour. Don't fall into conversation with anyone ever again. Stay at home at all times. Refuse all social invitations, and never, ever take a walk. Finally, address any registrars you encounter in Brussels (or wherever the Investment Court is) in Old Irish, preferably the incomprehensible Louth variety which no-one has understood in 800 years. That way, you might just see your job through to retirement.