This page is part of the Court Officers Act 1926 exhibition.
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The statutory office structures created by the 1926 Act proved remarkably durable during much of the 100 years since its enactment.
A committee to review the operation of the offices of the Supreme Court and High Court – the Boland Committee - was established in 1935, but it did not propose any major alteration to the existing offices structure, its recommendations being largely confined to staffing complements, selection and promotion methods and salaries. Its recommendation that the Bankruptcy Office be subsumed into the Central Office was not adopted and a recommendation that the Master of the High Court be relieved of general superintendence and control of the offices of the Supreme Court and High Court was not acted upon until 1945.
In 1936, the transfer of the wardship jurisdiction exercised by the Chief Justice to the High Court to be exercised by the President of the High Court resulted in the Office of the Registrar to the Chief Justice being re-named as the Office of Wards of Court and attached to the President of the High Court, the Registrar to the Chief Justice being re-titled as Registrar of Wards of Court.
In 1945, the Minister for Justice was given power, after consultation with the President of the High Court, to transfer management of the Central Office and oversight of the other High Court Offices from the Master of the High Court to a principal officer in the Central Office (known as the "Chief Registrar of the High Court").
The court office structures and staffing of 1926 (as modified in 1936 and 1945) were applied to the new courts established in 1961 as envisaged by the 1937 Constitution.
The Office and the post of Official Assignee in Bankruptcy were transferred from the High Court to the Insolvency Service of Ireland ("ISI") in 2013.
The recasting of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction and the establishment of a Court of Appeal with civil and criminal jurisdiction on foot of the Thirty-third Amendment of the Constitution necessitated the establishment of the Office of the Registrar of the Court of Appeal, and for the post of the Registrar of the Court of Appeal.
The lists of officers appointed in the 1920s to posts in the new courts – most of which were located in the Circuit and District Courts – are notable for the absence of women. This contrasts with the situation in the Dail Éireann courts, where women were represented both among the judges of those courts and their staff. Until the 1940s, representation of women in the courts was very limited and effectively confined to typist and copyist posts.
The lack of opportunities for women in the early decades of the new courts administration was compounded by the view held by some in authority that women were not suitable for certain types of work associated with the courts. Chief Justice Kennedy, when completing his evidence to the Joint Committee on the Courts of Justice Act 1924 and the Civil Jurisdiction of the Courts in 1930, asked if he could mention a matter which had been concerning him:
"… I feel very much that the scrivenery office [where documents were typed and copied] ought to have some male scriveners. I have been protesting against having cases of the most objectionable character handed to young girls of the typist and copyist class, who are the least educated and the least qualified to deal with that kind of thing..."
Chief Justice Kennedy's attitude reflected a more widely held official view that women were not suited, or should not be expected, to perform functions in criminal proceedings for sexual offences. Speaking on the Government's proposal, in the Juries Bill 1927, to grant to women a general exemption from jury service, Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, explained his reasoning thus:
"…I had to consider lately the question of the services of stenographers in the courts, and the question arose would we have women stenographers in the Central Criminal Court and in the Circuit Courts throughout the country. …I took the decision that women stenographers would be unsuitable, for a reason that many Deputies will appreciate at once. Extremely unpleasant cases come before the courts, cases of indecent assault, of rape, and, occasionally, of sodomy, and so on, and I would not take the administrative decision of subjecting women officials to a task of taking down verbatim evidence given in cases of that kind. That consideration applies equally in the matter of juries…"
Today women represent 65% of all courts staff and 65% of those in leadership positions (Principal Officer and above), including our current Chief Executive Officer Angela Denning.
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