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Time for our focus to switch to Seamus Woulfe now that #BigPhil is jobless. Let's see what Seamus has done, a thread
Obviously attended an Oireachtas golf society dinner with 80 other people to start. Why was a Supreme court judge there?
#GetTheWoulfeFromTheDoor
Obviously attended an Oireachtas golf society dinner with 80 other people to start. Why was a Supreme court judge there? #GetTheWoulfeFromTheDoor
in his last few weeks as Attorney General he decided to appoint Mary Irvine to president of the high court, so creating a vacancy at the Supreme Court. Traditionally the last AG gets any new vacancies in the high court or supreme court
was never a sitting judge before he took up his current role in the Supreme court, so leapfrogged all current sitting judges in the district and high courts. Helped draft initial Covid legislation but decided later incantations didn't apply to him
He delayed a bill when he was AG that would change how we appoint judges and FG used the delay to appoint three judges and ultimately Seamus Woulfe himself. This bill was designed to tackle an issue where judges were constantly finding in favour of banks over citizens.
When he was AG advised the Government that the #OccupiedTerritoriesBill would contravene EU law – a view disputed by other legal opinion https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/palestinian-rights-group-questions-ag-advice-on-occupied-territories-bill-1.4277886
In relation to the legislation on holding judges to account that he delayed, it was found that the following had happened(1) Senior judge of the Commercial Court being a shareholder in Bank of Ireland but never disclosing his interest in the bank
Cont (2) A senior judge of the Commercial Court whose wife and her family had €15 million written off by Bank of Ireland and in which the judge was a joint guarantor.
(3) Another senior judge of the High Court and twenty-two other barristers and solicitors were involved in a €40 million Davey Stockbroker property investment in which the loans were written off by Banks.
Cont: In his position as Judge, many of his 22 partners in the investment scheme would appear before him representing their own clients. This judge is alleged to have never recused himself and always ruled in favour of banks and receivers.
Cont (4) Retired judge failed to disclose that she had over 3,000 shares in CRH while adjudicating on a case when she sat involving CRH.
(5) Currently, two senior judges who were property business partners with reported borrowings in excess of €20 million Euro and are well-known for their outspoken outbursts against lay litigants.
These all benefitted from Woulfe's delay of the bill.
These all benefitted from Woulfe's delay of the bill.
Massive thanks to @LiamDeegan3 for a lot of the info in this thread, as I've said countless times, I'm just pulling stuff into one place, it's other people's articles and tips.
So Seamus Woulfe was supposed to meet the Chief Justice several times to discuss his position post #Golfgate. He cancelled the meeting 3 times, then met the CJ and refused to resign as recommended
Fill transcript of the letters here https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/read-in-full-the-extraordinary-exchange-of-golfgate-letters-between-the-chief-justice-and-seamus-woulfe-39727403.html
And it turns out that Ministers were not told that there were other candidates for the supreme court role, other than their old pal, ex AG Séamus Woulfe, who had never sat a day as a judge in his life....and still hasn't! https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/cabinet-not-told-serving-judges-applied-for-supreme-court-post-filled-by-s%C3%A9amus-woulfe-1.4407946?mode=amp
