E48 The Fifth Court with Peter Leonard BL and Mark Tottenham BL

Barry Andrews, Dublin MEP and former barrister joins The Fifth Court to talk about his careers as a lawyer, a national and a European politician, his lawyer/politician dad, David Andrews (88) who was Minister for Foreign Affairs during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations and his grandfather Todd Andrews, a veteran of the War of Independence.

Barry is very, very interesting about the time when the Troika came to town. Barry's family had been seminal in the foundation of the State and he says 'sovereignty was draining out the door of the Cabinet room and he looked out the window, on to Government Buildings, snowing heavily, and felt that 'we had degraded' what his grandfather and grandmother had started....

He gives a great explanation of how the Dáil and the European Parliament are so fundamentally different.

He talks about his work trying to have 'forced labour' banned as well as the products that come from it. This includes seafood sold by Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and Musgraves.

His recommendation of a book with a legal theme is Great Hatred, Little Room, Making Peace in Northern Ireland, written by Jonathan Powell

Our two interlocutors also discuss three cases from the Decisis.ie casebook

• A case involving the death of five day old child following an emergency Cesarean section where the parents disputed that the child had died by natural causes
• A case where it was alleged a borrower was making life difficult for a receiver to a property
• An appeal by the HSE to an order of the High Court, regarding the provision of mental health care for a prisoner who had a history of violence

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