As a magistrate in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, Ian Candy came across numerous celebrities who reverently bowed before him in court, including pop star Nicholas Tse Ting-fung, the late billionaire Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum and actor Tony Leung Ka-fai. But even as an ordinary citizen without his judicial attire, Candy can boast of crossing paths with figures as globally renowned as former Irish president Mary Robinson and as locally notorious as station sergeant Lui Lok, who collected a fortune in bribes before fleeing to Taiwan in 1974.
In April, Candy was honoured by Irish President Mary McAleese as one of the four founders of Ireland's Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC), an independent human rights organisation dedicated to equal access to justice, which celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Candy was a student at the time of the organisation's founding and described it as just a shared ideal among friends who felt they should help provide legal advice at a time when legal aid in Ireland was not provided in civil cases. 'At the time there was only criminal legal aid and no civil legal aid, so it was in effect a denial of access to justice for a majority of the population.'
Despite its humble origins, FLAC went on to initiate some landmark cases, forcing the introduction of Irish civil legal aid through a decision at the European Court of Human Rights.
FLAC began operating in April 1969 and was intended to be a legal-advice service provided by law students. Candy said they identified domestic issues and social welfare as areas where advice was needed.
Three weeks later they had their first case: 'Our guesswork was entirely right. Interpersonal relations, as we called it, was an enormous area.'