Perth Judge Has Irish Roots

Alan Troy is a good judge of character, starting with his own. The Perth district court judge grew up in Plymouth in the UK but from a young age he knew he was Irish. Both his parents are originally from Co. Waterford - Ardmore for his mum and Cappoquin for his dad - who moved to Clonmel, Co. Tipperary as children. His dad moved to England at the age of 15 and they spent their working lives in England, returning to Clonmel, where they still live, in 1997. “I lived in Plymouth,” he said. “I started to identify as Irish from about the age of nine or 10. Probably because I have no brothers and sisters and so my extended family, in particular my cousins all of whom lived in Ireland, assumed a great significance in my life. I also went to a Christian Brothers school.” Even as a young teenager Alan had a good indication what he wanted to do in life. “I was always reasonably good at debating and public speaking and gravitated fairly naturally towards a career in the law by the age of 15 or 16,” he said. Alan completed his legal education at the University of Wales in the UK in 1988 and completed a Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law, City University London in 1990. From 1991 to 2002, he practised at the independent bar in the UK, specialising in criminal law. “I went to Australia initially in 2000 and because I was admitted in Queensland I did not have to undergo any further examinations, although that situation has now changed,” he explained. “I returned to the UK, but then successfully emigrated to Western Australia in 2002, where I obtained employment with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. I was quickly immersed into one very large tax fraud case and so I did not have the immediate pressure of multiple court appearances while getting used to a new jurisdiction. All in all, I found the transition from working as a lawyer in the UK to one in Australia fairly manageable. There were more similarities than differences in terms of the rules of evidence and procedure, although having to start again with a whole new landscape of opponents and judges was obviously challenging.” From 2005 to 2010 he worked he worked with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), first as a Senior State Prosecutor and then as an acting Consultant State Prosecutor. After leaving the DPP, he worked as a barrister with Francis Burt Chambers, specialising in criminal law. The retirement of Judge Richard Keen created a vacancy in the courts service he was to fill. “I was appointed a District Court Judge in 2016,” he added. “I spend a lot of my time presiding over trials involving a jury as well as sentencing offenders for a wide range of serious crimes. I also spend about eight weeks a year dealing with civil litigation including, for example, cases of medical negligence. Although the District Court is based in Perth, I travel to the regional courts across Western Australia for two weeks at a time, about three or four times a year.” He has some advice for anyone considering pursuing a legal career abroad. “Definitely go for a salaried position as opposed to working in a self-employed capacity as I erroneously did in 2000,” he said. “Be prepared to take one step backwards to go to step forwards. If you can find a position that is not completely alien to your current experience, that will keep you busy and which has an engaging group of colleagues, in my experience you will succeed in making the transition. It is a big step obviously. Try to give yourself 12 months at least before deciding that it is not for you. When I moved from the UK to Australia I was single and so it was much more challenging than if one was moving with a family. It rather helped that I met my wife two years after I arrived.” Today the couple have two children - Isabella (14) and Patrick (12, pictured above with Alan) and live happily in Perth. “My children consider themselves Australian, but are very aware of their Irish

heritage. My late father in law was Greek, so that side of their background is important as well.” Most years the Troy family travel back to Ireland for a holiday, most recently last summer. “We spent a wonderful time in Dublin, Dingle and Kinsale,” he explained. “The highlight for my son was catching a pollock, about half his length, off the coast of Kinsale.” Alan - a keen rugby fan - has been a member of the Irish Club in Subiaco and was also involved with the committee that organised the St. Patrick’s Day parade when it was held in Fremantle and still takes an interest in the Irish community in his adopted home. “I know the current organiser of the St Patrick’s Day committee through my son’s brief stint with a rugby club that he is involved in. and after a gap of a few years the St Patrick’s Day festivities in Perth are better than ever. Also, some years ago my junior counsel in a murder trial I prosecuted was a very good woman’s Gaelic footballer from Dublin. My wife’s background is Greek and I recently attended a function hosted by the Hellenic Australian Lawyers Association. I think there is definitely merit in an Irish Australian Lawyers Association and I would be keen to become involved in such a project.”

This article is based on a 'Working Abroad Q&A' feature with Judge Alan Troy published by the Irish Times on February 17, 2020 and with his approval.

WA’s Chief Justice claims Irish convict connection Almost two years ago Peter Quinlan became the 14th in Western Australia with his parents when they Chief Justice of Western Australia. The appointment of emigrated. A publican by trade, he leased the the Supreme Court judge as the head of WA’s justice Shamrock Hotel in Perth from Daniel Connors for a system was witnessed by the great and the good of the time. In 1883 Timothy married Teresa Connor, Daniel’s legal fraternity at a special ceremony in the Court on daughter and they had eight children. August 20, 2018. Timothy went on to serve as a councillor on the City of Justice Rene Lucien Le Miere was the master of Perth from 1890 until 1902 and even had a run at the ceremonies for the event and alluded to the newly Lord mayors office in 1900. He was also elected to the minted CJ’s Irish heritage in his introduction. “He’s a fifth generation West Australian, and at the risk of creating controversy, comes with a somewhat colourful past, albeit four generations ago,” Justice Le Miere said. “It seems that our new Chief Justice is the great, great grandson of a convict. There’s certain irony in the fact that this State’s most senior judicial officer is related to a sheep stealer who was transported to Western Australia in 1853. From a convict ancestor to a chief justice, I’m sure Daniel Connor, your great, great grandfather would be very proud of you. And on the other side of your family Michael Quinlan, a Legislative Assembly on a number of occasions. Justice Quinlan finished his speech for the occasion with reference to his Irish ancestor. “Justice Le Miere commenced his remarks with a reference to my convict ancestor Daniel Connor, who arrived here eight years before the appointment of the first Chief Justice,” he said. “Connor died in 1898, and by that time, he had become a successful business owner in the colony. His funeral was officiated by Bishop Matthew Gibney, who concluded with the following words, which I ask you all to keep in mind in the coming years: Be to his virtues ever kind, and to his faults a trifle blind.” much more respectable citizen of the colony and a Justice Quinlan may be the most ‘Irish’ Chief Justice blacksmith, arrived some 10 years later in 1863.” WA has known yet, but one other claimed some Irish Daniel Connor’s story has appeared in Irish Scene heritage. John Dwyer was born in June 1879, the oldest before, and how the transported Kerryman with son of Thomas Dwyer, who was born in Tipperary and nothing to his name went on to become one of the a mother from a Scottish background. Dwyer practiced biggest landholders in Western Australia and one with a law firm in Albany before becoming a junior of Australia’s richest men. He owned a swag of partner with a Fremantle firm in 1911. He enlisted with hotels - including the Subiaco Hotel - and holdings the AIF during World War I and returned to the Bar in the then-colony. Michael Quinlan has not graced after the war. He became a judge of the Supreme Court these pages before, but his son Timothy Francis in 1929 and on January 1 1946 was appointed Chief Quinlan has. Timothy, who was born in Borrisokane, Justice of Western Australia. He retired from the Court Co. Tipperary in 1861 and two years later arrived in February 1959.