News

Nov 11, 2024

Bar Council rejects barrister’s application to be Simeon Burke’s ‘master’ – The Irish Times

The Bar Council has rejected a move by an established barrister to break the deadlock over Simeon Burke’s stalled legal career by applying to act as his “master” and take him on as pupil so he can

The Bar Council has rejected a move by an established barrister to break the deadlock over Simeon Burke’s stalled legal career by applying to act as his “master” and take him on as pupil so he can finish his training.

Mr Burke, a brother of jailed teacher Enoch Burke, cannot start practising as a barrister without completing a mandatory pupillage, or apprenticeship, under an experienced barrister, known as a master. Pupils are known as devils.

About 150 barristers are on the formal list of masters but none has come forward to engage Mr Burke, who was an award-winning legal student.

A barrister who is not on the register of masters, Garry O’Halloran BL, said he applied to join the list, with a view to contacting Mr Burke. However, Mr O’Halloran said the council rejected the application because he attends court only as required for cases and not every day.

“I never approached or even informed Simeon Burke. I don’t know him personally. My only information was what I read in the media,” Mr O’Halloran said when asked about talk in legal circles on his application. “My concern was the young man, having undergone the rigours of completing a barrister-at-law degree, would be able to practise in his chosen profession.

“I would have been available if it was suitable and with the full agreement of both parties, meaning the devil and the Bar Council.”

Mr O’Halloran, a barrister since 1993, is a former Fine Gael councillor and former chairman of the South-Eastern Health Board. His practice is in the area of asylum law.

Mr Burke was called to the bar in October 2023 after studying law at the University of Galway, Cambridge University and the King’s Inns. He did not respond to an emailed request to discuss his search for a master.

He has previously claimed he was facing “exclusion” from practising law in the Irish courts due to his “religious beliefs”.

He has complained to the Bar Council that the lack of a pupillage arrangement has left him “effectively shut out of membership of the Law Library and practise in the courts”. The council’s rules say it is the responsibility of a pupil to secure a master.

In September, the High Court sent Enoch Burke back to prison after he again refused to abide by an order to stop attending Wilson’s Hospital, the school he has been sacked from. Enoch Burke claims he was jailed for being against transgenderism in accordance with his Christian religious beliefs. He has spent more than 400 days in prison.

Asked about Mr O’Halloran’s intervention and Mr Burke’s case, the Bar Council said it “cannot comment on individual applications in relation to this matter”.

[ John McManus: Someone needs to give Simeon Burke a barrister job for all our sakesOpens in new window ]

Mr O’Halloran said the council’s grounds for rejecting his application were “valid reasons in accordance with the rules and the regulations” governing such matters.

“The main reason is that I would only be in attendance in the Law Library or in court as needed. I don’t reside in Dublin and I don’t spend too much time there,” he said.

“Although the application was late, the Bar Council in fairness did consider the application and evaluated it in full.

“I have no qualm with the Bar Council because they have their rules and I appreciate the requirements that are in place for the master-devil relationship.”