Although it is standard practice in the Republic of Ireland to refer to barristers as ‘BL’ , an abbreviation for ‘Barrister-at-Law’, a very different approach was taken in the six counties, due to the strongly held view of an early Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Sir William Moore, that the term was a Dublin vulgarism invented by the press.
As the above article from the Ballymena Telegraph of 8 March 1930 demonstrates, the mere appearance of these forbidden letters on pleadings or documents was enough to drastically raise Sir William’s blood pressure!
Below follows an account of a further diatribe from four years later, reported in the same newspaper of 23 March 1934, in which Sir William described use of the term ‘BL’ in relation to barristers as ‘ignorant’ and ‘not to the credit of the profession.‘
Interestingly, Lord Chief Justice Moore had previously been a judge of the High Court of Ireland, where he would presumably have been well used to the term!
Was he making a not-so subtle point about the difference between the Northern Irish and Free State Bars, to the detriment of the latter?
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