Athy court cancelled first time in 40 years
Athy Courthouse Photo: Aisling Hyland
FOR the first time in an estimated 40 years, a scheduled court day in Athy was cancelled when no judge turned up to hear the cases of 120 defendants. The normally very reliable Judge Desmond Zaidan was listed for the bench last week (9 July).
An assumption, though not confirmed, was made that Judge Zaidan was poorly, but this had happened on rare occasions before in the 14 years since he first sat in Kildare, and had not affected the running of the list as court services would task a travelling judge to stand in for the day. On days like these, the stand-in judge will do whatever he or she can for as many cases as possible, but will adjourn any long-standing case awaiting the sitting judge’s ruling.
However, much to everyone’s surprise last Tuesday, this did not happen, and at 11am the clerk attendant made the call that court would not be sitting that day, and its constituent parts adjourned to a number of dates in the future.
Your reporter commented that he had never seen this happen in the five years since he began his reportage from Kildare courts, but was trumped by the venerable veteran Frank Taaffe who said: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in 40 years here!”
For those in court, incarcerated, and inconvenienced by this incident these are the adjourned dates.
All on the criminal list will return on 26 November at 10.30am, save those who were due to be served with a Book of Evidence, and awaiting to be sent forward for trial.
They shall return at the next sitting of Athy District Court on 23 July, at 10.30am, as shall all on the Civil List, the Applications List, and the first seven cases listed for Family Law hearing.
Others will have to wait until the first Athy date after the summer recess, and are re-summonsed for 10 September.
