In April 1996 - the late Garrett Cooney having temporarily succumbed to a bout of laryngitis - it fell to Donal O Donnell, a recently appointed 38-year-old senior counsel, to open the appeal of Senator Des Hanafin against the High Court s refusal to invalidate the wafer-thin passage of the October 1995 divorce referendum.
Had Shane Ross sat at the back of the Supreme Court chamber during that appeal, he could not have failed to have been struck by the conspicuous brilliance of O Donnell s advocacy, a staging post on a journey that was to mark him out as the great appellate and constitutional lawyer of his generation.
Should we not know a little more about the man who is poised to take the most important job in our legal world? What makes him tick? No, it doesn t work like that. Apparently the less we know of his background, his lifestyle, or his character, the better.
A little research last week revealed some intriguing aspects to Donal s life.
He has committed no obvious sins, but surely all candidates for the Supreme Court merit questions about their lifestyle and activities, including their attitude to hospitality past and present. Special standards of behaviour are required of judges. Golfgate and Séamus Woulfe proved that.