Sir, - "Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice and judging by a report that met my incredulous eyes in yesterday's Irish Times (22nd October), that's exactly the way the judiciary in this country is heading. Indeed, Lewis Carroll may well have penned those words with his namesake, Judge James Carroll, in mind.
For this eminent arbiter has invented a new crime punishable by incarceration, no less that of a workman proceeding with necessary works as fully sanctioned by the Department of Justice, viz., concrete cutting and cement mixing, outside the Four Courts, and within sight and sound of the courtroom over which Judge Carroll presides.
Can these, by any chance, he the same Four Courts of which its magistrates, for time immemorial, have been voicing displeasure regarding primitive conditions and antediluvian environment? No question. The learned judge would do well to ponder the irrefutable fact that you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. - Yours, etc.
Castle Avenue,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.