It is mid-morning at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Dublin’s Parkgate Street and around 200 striking criminal law practitioners are gathered on the courthouse steps. For the first time ever barristers, up and down the country, have officially withdrawn their services in protest at the Government’s refusal to reverse fee cuts imposed for criminal casework in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The emphasis is on the word ‘official’. There have been a series of informal walkouts before now by barristers practicing criminal law. This time the Bar Council is full square behind them. Visually the protest is…

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