Author Archives: Edward McGarr
The Balance in the Criminal Law Review Group
That the âBalance in the Criminal Law Review Groupâ? was established following a speech by the Tanaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform undermines its credentials. We already have the Law Reform Commission whose publications do not generally exhibit the realpolitik which is the survival imperative of Government Ministers. Why, then, the need for the Group? The title of the Group implies there is an imbalance between the rights of suspects and the rights of society. It is […]
Defamation on the web: An Irish perspective, in brief
Is defamation on the Web special? No; except in the sense that there is no statutory provision applicable to publications on the Web similar to, for example, Section 24 of the Defamation Act 1961 conferring a qualified privilege on newspapers and broadcasting media disseminating fair and accurate reports of the matters set out in the 2nd Schedule to the Act. Where does the Irish law of defamation come from? Irish law of defamation comes from the common law, from the […]
The Medical Defence Union: “MDU”
Once again, McGarr solicitors have been criticised for a posting relating to Medical Defence Union (âMDUâ?). Again, the critic is the Dublin solicitor to MDU. The criticism now carries far less force than the first criticism, consisting as it does of assertion and a refusal to engage with questions we raised in correspondence after the first attack. The solicitor instead confirms he is writing to our ISP. He has done this despite the fact that we took down the first […]
The Vaccine Trials
The Elephant of Forgetfulness extends its benign trunk to the Nuremberg trial in 1946. The public and, it appears, Mary Harney the Minister for Health and Children, have forgotten the trials (there was more than one) and especially have forgotten “The Doctors Trial”?. Many victims of the Holocaust had been the subject of medical experiments in the concentration camps. Against the odds, some of the medical personnel responsible for the terrible injuries inflicted on the victims were brought to trial […]
MRSA in Ireland: Causes of the disease, who is liable and why
This article examines the facts of nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (“MRSA”?) and the applicable law. MRSA is a serious infection caused by a microorganism. We are engulfed by microorganisms. We cannot live without them. They are in the air; in the water we drink; on everything we touch; on, and in, our bodies. Most of them, clearly, are benign and not pathogenic. Pathogenic means “disease-causing”?.
Corrib Gas Pipeline – 5th December 2006
THE HIGH COURT Record No: 840P/2005 BETWEEN: SHELL E & P IRELAND LIMITED Plaintiff And PHILIP MCGRATH, JAMES PHILBIN, WILLIE CORDUFF, MONICA MULLER, BRID MCGARRY, PETER SWEETMAN Defendants And THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS MARINE AND NATURAL RESOURCES, IRELAND AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Defendants to the counterclaim of second and fifth defendants Update (5th December 2006) 1. The Judgement on the privilege issue motion was delivered today by Judge Smyth. 2. He ruled that the Plaintiff had not lost its legal […]
The Medical Defence Union “MDU”
Our website has been criticised, indeed severely criticised, if not actually attacked. The criticism comes from the Medical Defence Union through its Dublin solicitors. It alleges it has been defamed in our article (now deleted) and that the article contained several inaccurate statements. We see, from the solicitorsâ letter (to which we have made reply), there are a number of matters in our article with which the MDU do not take issue. They are: a) â[MDU]⦠offers membership to doctors […]
Corrib Gas case – 15th November 2006
THE HIGH COURT Record No: 840P/2005 BETWEEN: SHELL E & P IRELAND LIMITED Plaintiff And PHILIP MCGRATH, JAMES PHILBIN, WILLIE CORDUFF, MONICA MULLER, BRID MCGARRY, PETER SWEETMAN Defendants And THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS MARINE AND NATURAL RESOURCES, IRELAND AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Defendants to the counterclaim of second and fifth defendants Update (15th November 2006) 1. The privilege issue Motion is listed for hearing before Judge Smyth in the Four Courts on 21st November 2006.
Dear Dermot Ahern
The EU Council Presidency has proposed the setting of the minimum age for recording and storing facial images and fingerprints in the chip of a passport. It proposes that both images and fingerprint records on passports be compulsory from the age of 12 and be permissible below that age. The decision is to be made in a Committee on which Ireland has a representative. Its original brief covered visas; it was extended to documents of non EU nationals in the […]
The Corrib Gas case – 10th November 2006
THE HIGH COURT Record No: 840P/2005 BETWEEN: SHELL E & P IRELAND LIMITED Plaintiff And PHILIP MCGRATH, JAMES PHILBIN, WILLIE CORDUFF, MONICA MULLER, BRID MCGARRY, PETER SWEETMAN Defendants And THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS MARINE AND NATURAL RESOURCES, IRELAND AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Defendants to the counterclaim of second and fifth defendants Update (10th November 2006) 1. The privilege issue Motion came on for hearing before Judge McMenamin in court 3 in the Four Courts on 10th November 2006. 2. The […]