TRIBUTE HAS been paid to barrister and senior counsel Colm Allen, who died suddenly yesterday.
Chairman of the Bar Council of Ireland Paul O’Higgins SC described him as a “larger than life” and extremely generous colleague. “Colm would always help anyone who was in trouble.”
Mr Allen and Mr O’Higgins were called to the inner bar, or became senior counsel, at the same time in 1992. The chairman of the Bar Council added he had an “ebullient approach to the law and cases”.
A colourful and gregarious personality, he represented a variety of celebrity clients and came to wider attention through his frequent appearances on the Vincent Browne radio programme on RTÉ when actors voiced the proceedings of the planning tribunal.
His legal colleagues were not immune from his commentary and on one occasion he described an opposing counsel at the Flood tribunal as “beginning to jump up and down with the frequency one would normally associate with the bloomers of members of the oldest profession”.
Mr Allen represented former government press secretary Frank Dunlop during his early appearances before the planning tribunal, originally the Flood and subsequently Mahon tribunal.
He also represented the Bailey brothers, Michael and Thomas, and former radio boss and impresario Oliver Barry at the tribunal.
His celebrity clients included Dublin boxer Steve Collins.
A bon viveur and great party man, an observer said of him that he would “never use a short word where a long one would do, or a longer word when he could use a sentence”.
Mr Allen, who was in his early 60s, is survived by his wife Amanda, sons David and Ben, his mother Mary and brothers Pádraig, Diarmuid, Seán and Liam.
He is being waked at his home in Dublin on Monday from 4pm to 7pm, with removal on Tuesday to the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, Dublin, for 11.30am Mass and burial in Shanganagh Cemetery.
