The lack of evidence sufficient to cause Frank Clarke to explode into a tirade against a newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice was the historic kiss of death for the bloviator. Clarke has a record of comparable injudicious outbursts.
In an unprecedented and remarkably shabby attack on a Supreme Court colleague, Clarke exhibited a state delusional grandeur witnessed among third world dictators. His state of mind was such that his mere edict that Judge Woulfe resign was so ‘supreme’ that no defence would prevail. Shocked by Mr. Justice Woulfe’s response, Clarke turned to his accustomed bloviation, i.e., page upon written page of proffered dicta, in this case to Mr. Woulfe. When the tactic failed to induce the intended bully-boy affect and desperate for cover he grovelled before former Supreme Court Justice Denham for protection.
Denham did not deliver but instead authored a voluminous report on October 1, 2020 designed to demonstrate her serious responsibility to the Supreme Court and the Nation. She concluded by lamenting that nothing more could be done in the matter of Clarke v Woulfe since the judicial conduct provisions of the Judicial Council Act of 2019 have yet to be commenced.
(N.B. The European anti-corruption body, Group States Against Corruption (GRECO), has found Ireland to be “globally unsatisfactory”, particularly in areas of judicial appointment and independence. In response to GRECO findings and what The Honourable Mrs. Justice Denham, CJ stated was of “real concern” and a “significant institutional vacuum”, the legislature passed the Judicial Council Bill (Act 33 of 2019) establishing the mechanism for dealing with complaints against sitting judges.
For those unfamiliar with the Act, it was designed to provide a statutory means of dealing with judicial misconduct. It was written in response to EU criticism of Ireland’s total lack of a legal process to hear judicial misconduct cases. Passage languished in the legislature for more than two (2) years. The Act is severely criticised by legal scholars as a means to correct nothing and introduced to deflect EU criticism
Clarke’s transparent megalomania has not subsided. Recent updates reveal that Mr. Justice Seamus Woulfe still has not been assigned to hear a case before the court. Clarke’s correspondence issued to Woulfe between the 5th and 9th of November 2020 sated that the unanimous view of Woulfe’s Supreme Court colleagues was that he had caused “significant and irreparable” damage to the court and the relationship with it.
The real question to be answered: Who is rending ‘significant and irreparable’ damage to the Nation’s Highest Court? Mr. Justice Woulfe or members of the ‘unanimous’ who trample the constitutional right of Fair Procedue at will?