By David Langwallner

In the colorful annals of the Irish Bar two giants, present company excluded, stand above all others and of course they worked with each other and were closely associated often. Partners in crime or in criminal defense. Now the legendary Adrian Hardiman a personal friend is dead. Mr. McEntee though not as busy as he was and over 80 goes on and on at an advanced age the rock of ages.

He looks not unlike Charles Laughton who memorably played a Mcentee type barrister in Witness for the Prosecution (1957). An all knowing and very dangerous opponent famous for last minute actions and a detailed grasp of strategy.

His career shows how acting is crucial to some forms of legal representation as his career began as a student actor in UCD. There has always been an element of shade and performance and indeed he is not unlike the actor played by Brandeneur in Mephisto. (1981)He is the master of smokes, mirrors and performance. The last of the illusionists. A master of the dark arts. It is most uncomfortable meeting him at a reception and he often sidles in last into a room for dramatic effect. For the last is first.

Fr Niall Molloy died after suffering six blows to the head after a wedding. At the later trial of Richard Flynn in the Circuit Criminal Court for manslaughter Patrick Mentee SC allowed nine witnesses to give evidence in just 90 minutes without any questioning. State Pathologist Professor John Harbison gave evidence that the priest died from the injuries to his head.

The charismatic and compelling McEntee had one shot at victory. He put forward another version of what happened: as he ran to attack Richard Flynn, the priest had a heart attack. Still standing, he received three blows from Flynn. As he fell, he hit his head on the bedpost, the bed board and the floor. This accounted for the evidence of six blows to the head. Harbison agreed it was a possibility.

It would not be safe to put the case to a jury, McEntee argued. Judge Roe should direct the jury to find Flynn not guilty. It worked. The judge called the jury back.

Incredibly, he told them: “Professor Harbison agreed that there was a possibility that Fr Molloy died of a heart attack.” The accused had to be given the benefit of this possibility, and declared innocent. Thirty years later there are persistent calls for an inquiry into what actually happened.

Advocacy is a dangerous and ambiguous art. In another case as I am led to understand there was side bet among colleagues that in cross examining a farmer he could reduce the jury to peals of laughter with his first opening questions. It was an IRA border case and he was cross examining a farmer.

The question that reduced the jury to laughter is it true farmer that you have the finest pair of balls (sic bulls) in all of Ireland?

Paddy Mcentee came to prominence as a criminal defender primarily through his work in the Special Criminal Court in the 1970s. His career dovetailed with the growth in importance of that court where he is widely credited with the protection of civil liberties which might have otherwise eroded in the face of non-jury trials. He succeeded in having quashed several Special Criminal Court convictions in the Court of Criminal Appeal. His flamboyant manner and indeed private persona belies the fact that most of his success is due to meticulous preparation and an impressive command of the case law especially involving the rules of evidence.

A sense of his strategic thought processes is his legendary representation of Malcolm Macarthur. He represented Malcolm Macarthur in the infamous trial for the murder of Birdie Garran where Macarthur was discovered at a former AG’S flat in 1982. A not guilty but perhaps insane plea which he toyed with would have led to a media circus. Thus for only the second time in his career Mcentee entered a plea of guilty in a murder trial. He wouldn’t have done it if there had been another way out.

But that wasn’t the end of it. There wasn’t any point in pleading guilty to the murder of Bridie Gargan to avoid sensational publicity if the details were going to be dragged through the courts in the Donald Dunne trial another murder charge he was faced with. Paddy Mcentee hammered out the best possible deal for Macarthur – plead guilty to the first charge and the second will be dropped. The DPP gets his conviction. The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was established in 1974 to remove the power of prosecution, held previously by the gardai and the Attorney General, from political influence It so one of the only vectors of independence left in that nefarious country where the police and many state barristers are in effect criminals.

Legal deals are not supposed to be a part of the Irish judicial system, but they are. Far too prevalent a land of shady deals and dubious battle. As part of the defence policy masterminded by McEntee he never applied for bail because it would give rise to even more publicity and outraged comment. Another tactic was to get the case to trial as quickly as possible. Macarthur appeared in the District Court five times. Each time, the defense complained about delays.

Minutes after the murder trial of Bridie Gargan commenced, McEntee looked for an adjournment to consider documents presented by the prosecution. More damning evidence. Psychological reports that testified to Macarthur’s sanity and a do-it-yourself home electrocution chart allegedly destined for a third victim.

The next morning, following the adjournment, Macarthur pleaded guilty to the murder of Bridie Gargan. Harry Hill asked for a further adjournment on the Donal Dunne charge and said then that he did not anticipate the charge being proceeded with.

.In the final minute of the Gargan trial, McEntee made one of the eleventh hour man oeuvres for which he is well known. He asked that a report of psychiatric evidence be entered as part of the court record. Judge McMahon agreed. It seemed an innocuous enough action. McEntee explained to the court that the purpose of the report was that psychiatric evidence would be available to the authorities if it was ever needed. The evidence in this report states that Malcolm Macarthur is not a danger to society.

Yet despite all of this it was in everybodys interest that isolated Macarthur languished a long time in Mountjoy. He was not released until 2012.

The MCArthur case led to the phrase by Conor Cruise O Brien of GUBU Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, Unprecedented. It also led to a fictionalized representation by John Banville The Book of Evidence (1989) which is and an accurate insight into how the established non directional flaneurs of Dublin from the established impoverished families are truly like particularly as trickle doen trickles out and there is widespread scarity. . One step from the four courts one step from Mountjoy where many of the should be.

McCarthur attended a book launch by Banville on his release. It is a dark town. Irredeemable.

David Langwallner.