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Lessons From the Bench: Reflections from a Life Spent in Ireland's Criminal Courts
When Gillian Hussey started out in Bridewell District Court in 1984, little did she realize that she would deal with some of the most notorious criminals in Ireland, including the Kinahans, the Cahills, ‘The Monk’ and John Gilligan.
As one of Ireland’s first female judges, Gillian was very much a woman in a man’s world. Unafraid to look beyond the courtroom, she always sought to better understand the human – not just the criminal – who stood before her in the dock. Through her work, Gillian spent a lifetime learning about people, society and herself.
This fascinating insight into the career of a trailblazing woman reveals the inner workings of Ireland’s criminal courts, explores the changes in Irish society and shares some timeless truths learned from almost 20 years on the bench.
As one of Ireland’s first female judges, Gillian was very much a woman in a man’s world. Unafraid to look beyond the courtroom, she always sought to better understand the human – not just the criminal – who stood before her in the dock. Through her work, Gillian spent a lifetime learning about people, society and herself.
This fascinating insight into the career of a trailblazing woman reveals the inner workings of Ireland’s criminal courts, explores the changes in Irish society and shares some timeless truths learned from almost 20 years on the bench.
362 pages, Hardcover
Published September 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 4, 2022
I doubt that the author intended this book to be an academic tome – for me it was a behind the scenes glimpse into the rarified corridors of the judicial system, as well as a personal human story of her own life, while also providing great insights into the day-to-day workings of the courts. There is always a danger with books like these, where the author has an indepth knowledge and forgets that they are writing for the ordinary reader who probably doesn’t have a law degree, and slips into the arena of writing for their peers. (On the one hand this, on the other hand that – until we’ve lost the will to live and dump the book.) Hussey, thankfully, did not do this. She just gave the reader a potted explanation of the tiers of authority and the aims of the various Courts, enough for the reader to get the overall picture.
While most of us would feel judges view themselves as all important, it was revealing to read of her terror at learning on the job. It made her human from the start and just like the rest of us mortals, who have at some time been dropped into new jobs without a clue where to begin.
She paints great word pictures of the atmosphere outside the courts – the victim, the gardai, the accused and their family members dragging on cigarettes in hallways. The book was peppered with the stories behind the cases, giving a great understanding of the deprivation many of the perpetrators have suffered in their young lives which in many cases led them onto this hamster wheel. It also followed up on the consequences for victims of crime.
Having come from a middle-class family herself, her job as a judge taught her as much about life as it did about the law. She visited Mountjoy prison and chatted to prisoners about their lives in an effort to understand what brought them to this juncture. Going on night patrol with members of the Drug Squad she got an insight on the lives of prostitutes, rent boys, male prostitutes and drug addicts, all of which educated her on night-time Dublin and what people had to do to survive. This all helped her see each person before her in the dock as a fellow human being.
The book is an easy read, with lots of comedic moments, and despite the harrowing reports, there are several good news stories where, with the right support, people have been able to turn their lives around. Lots of well known names and cases crop up also, adding to the wide range of cases.
This book certainly gave me food for thought and when I’m in the city and see the poverty stricken, haunted faces of drug addicts with their hands out, it makes me thankful for my own life. I would highly recommend it.
While most of us would feel judges view themselves as all important, it was revealing to read of her terror at learning on the job. It made her human from the start and just like the rest of us mortals, who have at some time been dropped into new jobs without a clue where to begin.
She paints great word pictures of the atmosphere outside the courts – the victim, the gardai, the accused and their family members dragging on cigarettes in hallways. The book was peppered with the stories behind the cases, giving a great understanding of the deprivation many of the perpetrators have suffered in their young lives which in many cases led them onto this hamster wheel. It also followed up on the consequences for victims of crime.
Having come from a middle-class family herself, her job as a judge taught her as much about life as it did about the law. She visited Mountjoy prison and chatted to prisoners about their lives in an effort to understand what brought them to this juncture. Going on night patrol with members of the Drug Squad she got an insight on the lives of prostitutes, rent boys, male prostitutes and drug addicts, all of which educated her on night-time Dublin and what people had to do to survive. This all helped her see each person before her in the dock as a fellow human being.
The book is an easy read, with lots of comedic moments, and despite the harrowing reports, there are several good news stories where, with the right support, people have been able to turn their lives around. Lots of well known names and cases crop up also, adding to the wide range of cases.
This book certainly gave me food for thought and when I’m in the city and see the poverty stricken, haunted faces of drug addicts with their hands out, it makes me thankful for my own life. I would highly recommend it.
February 9, 2025
Justice starts with Compassion!!!!
Read
August 24, 2023I never thought I needed a wise, Irish grandmother figure in my life until I picked up this book and started reading it. I had six options from the Non-fiction Book of the Year section of the Irish Book Awards 2022 shortlist and I read the previews on the first chapters of all six books. What sold me on this book was reading the ‘Contents’ section, which contained the titles of each chapter from the book. I was hooked. I wanted to have those titles printed out, put on a frame and put on display in my house.
The book is a sort of an informal, casual education on the criminal justice of the Irish law as much as it is a memoir of Hussey’s life and career. Through this book, you will learn about the ins and outs of what happened in the Irish court starting in the 1950s to early 2002s: names and definitions of legal terms, the work environment, Hussey’s vision and mission as a district judge and most importantly her struggle on becoming a female judge. I do not think that you need to be interested in the Irish judicial system for you to enjoy reading this book, but I do think some degree of interests in criminal justice or criminology would help as it goes into the details of legal procedures in the Irish judicial system.
The angle that Hussey took on the first few chapters I think is a fine one: she first and foremost spoke about her being left-handed and the struggles that came with it. I, a right-handed person happens to be left-hand dominant when playing most sports (such as basketball, martial arts and skateboarding), am still astounded by how the world is catered so unjustly (no pun intended) towards right-handed people. Sports drills tend to focus on drills for those who are right-handed – I have gotten used to it but still find myself frustrated at times – and for me it only happens during training times! So when I read that Hussey was actively discouraged by her father and the world from being a natural lefty pretty much until she was a legitimate grown-up, well, I would understand perfectly how that would have shaped a person. ‘Justice for lefties!’ says little Gillian. I adored the part where her paths crossed with this one doctor, who pulled some tricks to test Hussey’s hand dominance and Hussey was forever changed into the better (being her natural self) after that encounter. I think it is a lesson Hussey strives to pay forward throughout her life – that all it takes is one person to change a life for the better – and she has spent her life trying to be that person. I truly think it was the catalyst on how she did her duties as a judge.
SPOILER ALERT
Two of my favourite elements on reading this book: the drive that Hussey has on her quest to make the world (starting from The Republic of Ireland) a better place (especially with the fact that she was a woman District Judge in a men’s world) and her stories on Ireland’s most notorious criminals that she prosecuted or came across in her career. On chapter 9, she wrote about how back in the days, sexual offences hardly ever made it to court as people tended to ‘brush it off.’ Her insights and insider information on the trial of Fr Tony Walsh and Fr Brendan Smyth are quite intriguing. She saw it first-hand the obvious distinction between the two criminals: Walsh was clean-cut, no one would have ever suspected him of doing such heinous things, while Smyth looked like a typical, filthy old man. I liked that she shared with the readers of how being in the same room with Smyth made her feel, I thought it was such an intimate insight. As a reader, I was taken into her grapple in her attempts to keep evil at bay, actively as a District Judge and as a person.
Nonetheless, as much as I liked this book, or should I say – memoir – it was a book that I needed to focus when reading it, in order to comprehend what goes on in it. Many parts of the book felt like reading legal procedures, there is a lot of formal information regarding the Irish legal systems on this book. For example, Hussey would explain that the Gardaí would need a warrant sign-off in order to start investigating certain premises and some cases would most likely end up in the Circuit Court (another legal term that I learnt from reading this book). The way Hussey described how things work and how her brain functions is very straightforward and procedural, it will not be hard to see what kind of person or judge she is. As I stated, this was not a soapy book and I knew that coming in. Just as watching a procedural TV drama, it is generally not binge-able. People would tend to watch three episodes maximum in one seating. The pages were not long, but I could not read the book in one seating because there were some chapters where sometimes I felt as if I was reading a textbook – complete with the dates of past events. If someone were to quiz me though, I am not sure I would get every answer correctly, since again, loads of information. But it never hurts to know.
The lessons she did learn from the bench became a lesson to me personally. Her definition of justice was something that I whole-heartedly admire, ‘The greatest justice is to acknowledge the victim and help to heal their trauma, and to ensure that the accused never commits a crime again.’ (Lessons from the Bench 198-199) Hussey believed in serving justice not as a punishment, but as a rehabilitation. Throughout reading the book, I thought to myself, ‘This makes me want to read a memoir written by a male judge, as comparison.’ Because I do somewhat feel that her depths, methods and insights have something to do with her being female. Just as I was thinking it, she wrote that her gender does indeed play a role in the way she thinks. It doesn’t mean that one is superior to the other, but male and female do operate differently. From beginning to end, I was in Hussey’s journey where she started as a lenient child controlled by her father, to becoming one of Ireland’s most prominent figures in their Federal Court system. Her optimism is certainly not to be missed – even after retiring, she wrote that she still very much had her joie de vivre and intended to keep making contributions to society such as her role in Tiglin (a non-profit organisation which helps the homeless). This memoir is a lesson wrapped in 200 pages. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who needed to be reminded of the existence of positivity in this world. By reading this book, I learnt many lessons from my wise, Irish grandmother figure: Judge Gillian Hussey.
The book is a sort of an informal, casual education on the criminal justice of the Irish law as much as it is a memoir of Hussey’s life and career. Through this book, you will learn about the ins and outs of what happened in the Irish court starting in the 1950s to early 2002s: names and definitions of legal terms, the work environment, Hussey’s vision and mission as a district judge and most importantly her struggle on becoming a female judge. I do not think that you need to be interested in the Irish judicial system for you to enjoy reading this book, but I do think some degree of interests in criminal justice or criminology would help as it goes into the details of legal procedures in the Irish judicial system.
The angle that Hussey took on the first few chapters I think is a fine one: she first and foremost spoke about her being left-handed and the struggles that came with it. I, a right-handed person happens to be left-hand dominant when playing most sports (such as basketball, martial arts and skateboarding), am still astounded by how the world is catered so unjustly (no pun intended) towards right-handed people. Sports drills tend to focus on drills for those who are right-handed – I have gotten used to it but still find myself frustrated at times – and for me it only happens during training times! So when I read that Hussey was actively discouraged by her father and the world from being a natural lefty pretty much until she was a legitimate grown-up, well, I would understand perfectly how that would have shaped a person. ‘Justice for lefties!’ says little Gillian. I adored the part where her paths crossed with this one doctor, who pulled some tricks to test Hussey’s hand dominance and Hussey was forever changed into the better (being her natural self) after that encounter. I think it is a lesson Hussey strives to pay forward throughout her life – that all it takes is one person to change a life for the better – and she has spent her life trying to be that person. I truly think it was the catalyst on how she did her duties as a judge.
SPOILER ALERT
Two of my favourite elements on reading this book: the drive that Hussey has on her quest to make the world (starting from The Republic of Ireland) a better place (especially with the fact that she was a woman District Judge in a men’s world) and her stories on Ireland’s most notorious criminals that she prosecuted or came across in her career. On chapter 9, she wrote about how back in the days, sexual offences hardly ever made it to court as people tended to ‘brush it off.’ Her insights and insider information on the trial of Fr Tony Walsh and Fr Brendan Smyth are quite intriguing. She saw it first-hand the obvious distinction between the two criminals: Walsh was clean-cut, no one would have ever suspected him of doing such heinous things, while Smyth looked like a typical, filthy old man. I liked that she shared with the readers of how being in the same room with Smyth made her feel, I thought it was such an intimate insight. As a reader, I was taken into her grapple in her attempts to keep evil at bay, actively as a District Judge and as a person.
Nonetheless, as much as I liked this book, or should I say – memoir – it was a book that I needed to focus when reading it, in order to comprehend what goes on in it. Many parts of the book felt like reading legal procedures, there is a lot of formal information regarding the Irish legal systems on this book. For example, Hussey would explain that the Gardaí would need a warrant sign-off in order to start investigating certain premises and some cases would most likely end up in the Circuit Court (another legal term that I learnt from reading this book). The way Hussey described how things work and how her brain functions is very straightforward and procedural, it will not be hard to see what kind of person or judge she is. As I stated, this was not a soapy book and I knew that coming in. Just as watching a procedural TV drama, it is generally not binge-able. People would tend to watch three episodes maximum in one seating. The pages were not long, but I could not read the book in one seating because there were some chapters where sometimes I felt as if I was reading a textbook – complete with the dates of past events. If someone were to quiz me though, I am not sure I would get every answer correctly, since again, loads of information. But it never hurts to know.
The lessons she did learn from the bench became a lesson to me personally. Her definition of justice was something that I whole-heartedly admire, ‘The greatest justice is to acknowledge the victim and help to heal their trauma, and to ensure that the accused never commits a crime again.’ (Lessons from the Bench 198-199) Hussey believed in serving justice not as a punishment, but as a rehabilitation. Throughout reading the book, I thought to myself, ‘This makes me want to read a memoir written by a male judge, as comparison.’ Because I do somewhat feel that her depths, methods and insights have something to do with her being female. Just as I was thinking it, she wrote that her gender does indeed play a role in the way she thinks. It doesn’t mean that one is superior to the other, but male and female do operate differently. From beginning to end, I was in Hussey’s journey where she started as a lenient child controlled by her father, to becoming one of Ireland’s most prominent figures in their Federal Court system. Her optimism is certainly not to be missed – even after retiring, she wrote that she still very much had her joie de vivre and intended to keep making contributions to society such as her role in Tiglin (a non-profit organisation which helps the homeless). This memoir is a lesson wrapped in 200 pages. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who needed to be reminded of the existence of positivity in this world. By reading this book, I learnt many lessons from my wise, Irish grandmother figure: Judge Gillian Hussey.
September 1, 2023
This is now a Gillian Hussey fan account. Really enjoyed - it was the right balance of humour and addressing the serious topics.
Tbh I didn’t know much about Judge Hussey before reading this but I’m glad we had her on the bench. She clearly made such a positive impact to individuals and overall society through her humane / strategic approach in the courtroom :)
Tbh I didn’t know much about Judge Hussey before reading this but I’m glad we had her on the bench. She clearly made such a positive impact to individuals and overall society through her humane / strategic approach in the courtroom :)
April 1, 2023
A recount of a busy life. A book that brings hope. The author has the height of respect for so many of the people she encountered in her professional life: the guards, probation workers, addiction Fighters, and the petty criminals who took and made use of second chances when offered. Her attitude is There but for the grace of God go I. The one group she has little respect for is that of the legal eagles with their pomp and position.
November 21, 2023
Really hard to get into this book. Lots and lots of paragraphs about tiny incidents, like getting an apple thrown at her, or having drinks bought for her at a bar. She comes across as an excellent person who's really dedicated her life to doing the best job she can and giving back to her community and all of her charities. However in this book you never get a feel for her character, and you don't really get a feel for any specific criminal stories either, it's all just tidbits
March 18, 2024
I absolutely love how this is written, how simply and straightforwardly some life truths are said. The Lessons form the Bench is about life surprises and choices, about empathy and understanding, second chances and willingness to learn from the lessons life gives us.
January 26, 2023
Brilliant read for anyone with an interest in Irish law, featuring an insightful taste of the reality and culture of the Irish criminal justice system.
January 30, 2023
I found it a bit repetitive at times! But I enjoyed reading it and she seems like some great character ! She also has done a lot of good for Ireland !
February 9, 2023
Excellent memoir with a great broad view of the Irish Justice system
July 4, 2023
I could not finish this book, i just could not get into it. I never got the feel of who she was.
October 9, 2023
Very interesting and readable.
September 3, 2024
Very interesting overview of the legal system from the perspective of a Judge, which can be a rare experience.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews