Round and round the mulberry bush

• Author: C. H. Mckibbin
• Position: District Judge (Magistrates' Courts), Northern Ireland
• Pages: 1-15

2010] Round and round the mulberry bush 1

ROUND AND ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH

or, The rationale for, and the practicalities of, the new public law

outlines and children order advisory committee guidelines

relating to case management in family proceedings

in Northern Ireland

C.H. MCKIBBIN *

INTRODUCTION

Many of us here today, if not all, are married. Most of us

have children. Those of us who do, I can say without a shred of

doubt, love our children dearly and would do nothing which

might have any adverse consequences for them. In short, we want

the best for “our kids”.

So, it is alleged, does the law and so, apparently, do our

politicians. The Minister for Children in Westminster not so very

long ago was heard to aver that for the British Government our

children are our most important priority. No doubt similar

utterances can be traced back to Dáil Eireann. My unhesitating

response to this is negative. I have yet to hear of a government

minister – certainly in Northern Ireland – and I include indeed all

our M.L.A.s at Stormont from all parties in this – prioritising our

children’s welfare in terms of direct legislation which materially

affects the basic welfare of children in our jurisdiction over other

matters of what they would think of as “of more pressing need”.

In Northern Ireland we have had the Bamford Report which

stressed the urgency of funding a facility in Northern Ireland

which is designed specifically for the mental health care of our

children, especially those in severely disadvantaged areas,

who have suffered trauma as a direct result of our euphemistically

titled “Troubles” over the past 40 years or more. You may very

well ask: “Who is Bamford?” and “What has become of his

report?”, which, be it said, is still talked of in Stormont

occasionally as something which the Government of the day is

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* District Judge (Magistrates’ Courts), Northern Ireland.