ly appointed for life. A judge’s salary cannot be reduced which is guaranteed and they can only be removed from office for misbehavior. Judges must act ‘without fear or favour affection or ill-will’. There has also been an implicit convention pre-dating the 1937 constitution and indeed the establishment of the state in 1922, that judges do not generally become involved in any matter of public controversy. An example of this is the Sheedy case. Philip Sheedy was charged on three offences, which resulted in the death of Anne Ryan, after being sentenced to a four-year prison sentence. In this case Mr. Justice O”Flaherty became involved, which resulted in this sentence being suspended. An intervention by the Director of Public prosecutions resulted in an order of certiorari quashing the order for the sentence to be suspended. Although Mr. Justice O”Flaherty became involved in the spirit of “humanitarian interest” it was found unnecessary and damaging to the administration of justice. He had the case re-listed after a judge of equal jurisdiction made a final order. His personal involvement resulted in the prison sentence imposed on Mr. Sheedy being suspended. The other judge involved Mr. Cyril Kelly was critised for his handling of the case. In the end Mr. Justice O”Flaherty had to resign from his position.The state must also remain independent from the Judiciary. An example of how the court remain independent, is the Byrne versus Ireland case in the Supreme Court which removed the states immunity from being sued. This paved the way for many more similar cases to be tried. The state can now be sued like any other body or company. Recent examples of this include the Army deafness claims. In this case one successful case paved the way for others, and the Government ended up paying large sums of money to the claimants. As a result they set up their own tribunal where they limited...
