Irish courts restrict physical access

May 17th, 2005 | by aobaoill |

Over at the Tuppenceworth blog Simon has posted a thoughtful and important piece about pending ‘security precautions’ at the Four Courts in Dublin:

The front door to the Four Courts is the symbol of the public’s access to justice. It is the physical manifestation of the means by which the citizens of the Republic of Ireland can ensure that they can gain access to the events happening and decisions being made under that Seal of a harp. It is the promise of Article 34.1 carved in stone and wood. And that is too important to lose to bureaucratic “organisation”.

There is more to public space than its physical manifestation but the nature of that physical place – particularly in a key space like the courts – can have great symbolic resonances. Simon is right to challenge the unthinking bureaucratic moves that are underway – and which are in many ways similar to the attempted introduction of electronic voting about which I wrote so much last year – and I wish him well in his actions on this topic.

  1. One Response to “Irish courts restrict physical access”

  2. By Simon McGarr on May 17, 2005 | Reply

    Thank you for your interest. And for the link. The article is readable, but a bit longform for the blog. So I’ll be moving a copy to tuppenceworth.ie proper later. After I’ve slept a bit.

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