Author Archives: Edward McGarr
Mock Turtles and other mockeries
It is a surprising fact that something can be sold under two rubrics; what it is and expressly what it is not. Mock Turtle Soup is in that category. What is it? It is expressly fake. However, what is fake is the soup, not the turtle. The turtle is absent. It had to be absent, because it was rare and expensive. However, it had a consistency and mock turtle soup is an effort to produce the same consistency as the […]
Now, this bell tolling for another, says to me, thou must die
Perfect justice does not exist. When a person is injured, by the fault of another, only a money payment is available in law to compensate him or her. This inadequacy is unavoidable. Recently, in Ireland, a generation of politicians, civil servants and some lawyers, decided to trade even this inadequacy to further their prospects and careers. They promoted the interests of the defence in personal injury claims, over the interests of the injured plaintiff and some still do so. They […]
British is Better
With very little bother or trouble, the Oireachtas could and should remedy a real and persistent injustice for many injured persons. In Hu -v- Duleek Formwork Ltd & Anor [2013 IEHC 50, the High Court declined to make a declaration that the Plaintiff was entitled to the benefit of an insurance contract taken out by the insolvent Defendant company. The insurance company, Aviva, took issue with the Defendant’s failure to pay the excess of €1,000 which, as between the Defendant and […]
Slip and Fall Accidents
Supermarkets are common locations of slips and falls. The customer numbers are high and the material to cause the slips is readily to hand. Under the Occupiers Liability Act 1995 an occupier is obliged to take; “… such care as is reasonable in all the circumstances…….to ensure that a visitor to the premises does not suffer injury or damage by reason of any danger existing thereon” There is a danger in supermarkets that stuff will fall to the floor and […]
Foot in Mouth
Much of everyday speech is inaccurate, so inaccuracy is not a big deal in everyday life. However, Government ministers do not inhabit our banal everyday world. In the case of the Minister for Agriculture and Food this means at least two things; he should not say “appraise” when he means “apprise,” and he should not undermine criminal investigations by diminishing the facts being investigated which he does when he says he is investigating “mislabeling”. To say that selling horsemeat as […]
A Death in Hospital
The Vatican is an uncivilised place. A place is uncivilised if a person may die and the cause of death remains unexplained. This happened on the death, in the Vatican, of Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, in 1978. He was Pope for one month. What if he had died in Ireland? Depending on the circumstances there would be an inquest. An inquest is an inquiry by a coroner into the causes and circumstances of certain deaths. A death such […]
A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!
Section 3 of the Hotel Proprietors Act 1963 stipulates: “The proprietor of a hotel is under a duty to receive at the hotel as guests all persons who, whether or not under special contract, present themselves and require sleeping accommodation, food or drink and to provide them therewith, unless he has reasonable grounds of refusal.” Section 4 goes on to provide: “Where a person is received as a guest at a hotel, whether or not under special contract, the proprietor of […]
Sticking in your craw?
Recent posts have been food oriented. If the posts or your food are, reportedly, sticking in your craw, you are using a figure of speech. Humans do not have a craw, birds do. It is also known as the crop. Just down the bird’s alimentary system is the gizzard. Food does not stick there. Chickens, for instance, store small pebbles in the gizzard to grind food, they not having teeth. It’s suggestive of their ancestry in the dinosaurs, some of whom […]
Our Risky Environment
We are rightly worried about our beef burgers. The supposed international criminal conspiracy undermining the meat industry is easily located; it is the meat industry. But the meat industry is not unique. Consider our bread. We have been suspicious about it for a long time. When white bread was invented or introduced it was popular with the rich; they felt more confident that they were not eating bread contaminated with mouse droppings or insects or their body parts. (Bleached excrement […]
Moods
We are a firm of lawyers. Our website should deal with legal subjects. Hopefully, we do not lapse from that rule and, without going to the trouble of conducting an audit, we think we do not. It’s a broad rule and allows us to write (polemically if necessary) about such diverse topics as road accidents, accidents at work, medical negligence, planning act infringements and fingerprints. We could, if necessary, even comment on Bilbo Baggins’ contract with the dwarves at the […]