"I must interrupt you to ask if you have been listening to me. Have you been listening to me?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Then there is no need for you to explain the case to me. We simply want to know if you will accept the court freezing your client's assets, until the court resumes."

"My lord I wish to say..."

"Wish or no wish, will you accept it or not?"

"Yes, my lord, on condition that we can have an early hearing."

"The conditions are for me to impose, do you understand? I decide on the conditions."

"We would be grateful for an early hearing, my lord."

"I shall look forward to seeing you as soon as possible," he said. "In fact, I don't know if I can wait." Again, there was laughter from the front benches.

He listened to several other barristers before reading his judgement; he came to an agreement with each one about early hearings. The barristers left as soon as their business was settled.

He cited the facts of the case: the handicapped child who needed constant care and would need such care, as far as doctors could ascertain, for the rest of his life. His life span would be normal, as far as doctors could judge. The father was employed and the mother was a house-wife with six other children. He tried to set the case out clearly, factually, coldly. He summarised the arguments which the lawyers for the family had made, and then he came to the case for the hospital which wanted to release the child and the case which the Health Board and the State had also made in relation to overall policy governing the mentally handicapped and the community. He had taken notes during the long hearing, but he had tried also to listen carefully to each side and write a summary of the deliberations when he adjourned the court each day.

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