W2E-010 Diverse editorials-0.txt
PROFILE
Catherine McGuinness
Calm judge with a brief to reconcile
By Cathal MacCoille

CATHERINE McGuinness's status as one of the most accomplished and fulfilled figures of her generation was well established before last Friday morning, when she formally opened the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation.

Apart from her being a mother, a senator, a political speechwriter, a leading member of the Church of Ireland's synod, a lawyer and, since last February, a Circuit Court judge, the number of bodies she has served on would be enough work for several people.

She has been a member of the Council of State, the Voluntary Health Insurance board, the National Economic and Social Council, the second Commission for the Status of Women, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Marital Breakdown, and the Incorporated Society for the Promotion of Protestant Schools. She has also chaired the National Social Services Board, the Employment Equality Agency and the National College of Art and Design.

Even that list leaves out the inquiry into the Kilkenny incest case, which she chaired - the report's damming and detailed indictment of the failure of state services to detect and prevent a young girl's suffering at the hands of her father would have ensured, if she never did anything else, that her contribution to society would be widely acknowledged.

Now she has taken on an even more difficult task - chairing a body which aims to reconcile, but which has so far failed to attract those with whom its founders wish to be reconciled. The task of reconciling the absolutist aims of Sinn Fein with those of the parties from Dail Eireann is daunting in itself. And, as if these difficulties were not enough, there are the doubts of all participants that the forum's debates will be not only inconclusive but marginal to the main event - the negotiations between governments, and between northern parties and the British.

Catherine McGuinness was born in 1934 in Belfast where her father was a Church of Ireland minister in Dunmurry. After attending Alexandra College as a boarder, she took a degree in French and Irish at Trinity.

At the college's Cumann Gaelach, she met Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, the journalist and broadcaster whom she later married (they have three children).

Their marriage remains a source of fascination, both to their friends and to people who know them only through their public roles, as a union formed by two people who come from different ends of a political and cultural spectrum. The differences are often over-stated. Each took the same route into active politics in the Labour Party of the 1960s (she as a parliamentary assistant and scriptwriter, he as a leading member and Dail candidate); they share a love of the Irish language, of art, and of Paris, which they usually visit at least once a year.

It is in their personalities that most people who know them see the greatest difference, although one former colleague of Proinsias Mac Aonghusa in RTE linked this to their different careers.

"She always wanted to do things, whereas Proinsias's main aim in life was to find out who was doing things and why, and if possible to know more than the politicians he was dealing with. The Machiavellian image which he cultivated - and which I don't believe was ever as malign as some people liked to think - was the exact opposite of her style of working."

One friend of the couple said he did not know of any sustained relationship between two such different people. "They 're like chalk and cheese - they 're total opposites in terms of their personalities, their opinions and their relations with other people."

"Anyone looking at them would wonder how they co-exist. But they 're extraordinarily close, they 're great company - it's just one of the mysteries of life how such different people match each other perfectly, but they do."

Another friend said they were often on different sides of an argument. "Their views on the North would certainly be different. But you never get the sense that they 're disagreeing as part of a deeper agenda, the way you sometimes see with other couples."

When her husband was expelled from the Labour Party in 1967, after several bitter disputes with the leadership, she resigned from her post.

She became interested in law in the mid-1970's, as a result of her membership of the Adoption Board. She later recalled how, after becoming a barrister in 1977 (at the age of 42), she met Mella Carroll, now a High Court judge, in the Four Courts robing room. "Don't let them tell you you can't succeed because you 're a woman," Carroll told her.

Her legal practice was mixed at first, but she later built a high reputation for her work on family law cases. One of her arguments, in favour of a woman's right to a share in the family home as a result of her work in the home, was upheld by Mr Justice Barr in the High Court. His judgement was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1991, and the issue remains unresolved at a political level.

Legal colleagues are unanimous in describing Catherine McGuinness as clear-thinking, hard-working, extremely pleasant to deal with, competent and well-briefed in every case she has undertaken.

"She was seen as competent and hard-working rather than a wonderful advocate," said one lawyer. "But it was a great mistake to underestimate her. There's a touch of steel there, and if a case got nasty, as family law cases sometimes do, she was well able to look after herself."

In the seven months since her appointment as a Circuit Court judge, she has quickly established for herself a reputation for fairness. "There's a lot of bitchiness at the Bar, but very few people have a bad word to say about her," said one lawyer. "There was a certain element who said that, because her experience was mainly in family law, she would only be able for family law cases, but she's had several civil and criminal cases since her appointment, and she's been excellent."

One of her principal leisure interests is singing with Dublin's Culwick Choir. Shortly after her appointment as a judge, she appeared with the choir in a performance of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle at the National Concert Hall and always takes part in its charity performances of Handel's Messiah at Christmas.

"I can't remember her missing a concert," said one member of the choir. "She's a marvellous person to sing beside because she's so reliable musically." She also sings in her local parish church in Kill o' the Grange and will sing when called upon at legal functions.

Lawyers regard McGuinness as a perfect choice for the job of chairing the forum. "She's very calm, very fair, and she's always had a real interest in the northern thing," said one barrister. "She has the perfect temperament for the job, as well as a deep passion to make a go of it. And, as far as trying to reconcile deep divisions and bitterness is concerned, you could hardly get a better training than in family law cases. The only thing people involved in most marital disputes don't do is kill each other."
