Dr Margaret O'Toole's brilliant career at the Irish Bar has ended with her sudden death to the great grief of her husband, Ben Rowan, relations, friends and many clients, whom she helped so ably and so wholeheartedly over the years.
In the 1950s, she was known affectionately by her colleagues as "Shanghai Lil", an allusion to her family connection with the Far East. In later years, she was regarded more as "Rumpole of the Four Courts" on account of her considerable powers of oratory, her cadences and beauty of her diction, recalling the well known Rumpole of the television series.
Margaret obtained exhibitions at universities in Ireland, England and France, where she was conferred with Docteur en Droit Paris. As a junior counsel she was accorded a resounding success in the Vozza case (1957), the leading authority where an applicant has suffered a public wrong. The judgment was of a unanimous Supreme Court. Judge Kingsmill Moore, giving the judgment of the Court, said "Justice is not an ill tempered governess to discipline counsel and litigant but to administer justice."
Anyone who has been fortunate enough to have availed of her integrity and knowledge of the law will agree that when Dr Margaret O'Toole took a case, she fought tirelessly for Justice.
She was a very pleasant person for a client to work with always in good humour. The resonance of her fine speaking voice will ring in the memory. She will be sadly missed.