A 101-yr-old Monaghan woman was called up for jury duty in the circuit court. Evy Boylan is not going to fulfil her civic duty on this occasion but, her daughter, Frances, has questioned the administrative process which generates letters to centenarians requesting they sit on a jury.
The circuit court jury summons arrived by post on April, 22nd. The letter stated that anyone who fails to carry out their duty when requested could face a €500 fine. It also asked Evy to complete a section on how many hours she worked.
A lifelong Fianna Fáil supporter, Evy would have voted in the De Valera, Lemass, Jack Lynch and Haughey eras. Frances said she was reluctant to tell her mother about the summons because "she wouldn't sleep for a week". Her daughter questioned the wisdom of a system which records a person's name, date of birth and other personal details would request a woman in her 102nd year attend court. "I don't know if the people who issue these letters are incompetent or what the problem is," Frances told the Joe Finnegan Show, "They don't check dates of birth. I eventually got speaking to a human not a computer and I explained that my mother's a 101 years old and the woman said: 'will she be attending' and I said: 'what do you think?'
