Among the many tributes paid to Mr Justice Barron on his retirement was that of Attorney General Michael McDowell, who spoke of his commitment to vindicating the rights of the ordinary person against bureaucracies and big organisations.

Lawyers and journalists alike speak of his "sensible" judgments, and his last major judgment, when he found in favour of domiciliary midwife Ann Kelly against An Bord Altranais, was a model of clarity as well as a ringing statement of the need for fair procedures.

But he expressed surprise at hearing the praise, and is hesitant and self-effacing when expressing his personal views.

"I don't have any strong views, really," he told The Irish Times. However, he added: "I never really liked bureaucracy, and it tends to get in the way of the small person rather than the large person.

"There are cases where the underprivileged meet institutions that have very little give in them."

Asked if his Jewish background gave him an outsider's insight into the workings of the legal system, he again hesitated, but did not really think so.

"If the majority was all brought up the same way and think the same way . . . but it doesn't really work that way. The expertise of a judge is what he learned in his practice and experience as a barrister.

"If you wanted a different perspective perhaps you'd put academics on the bench.

"I don't think social background is nearly as important as research and experience as barristers.

"We don't have the American system of liberals and conservatives. As individuals we would have minor differences in perspective, but that is as far as it would go, in my view."

None the less, he says of the abortion issue, which has trailed through the courts twice in recent years: "Abortion is not an issue for the law. It just isn't."

Asked if he thought it was more difficult to be a judge now than when he joined the High Court 18 years ago, he said the law had become more complex with the addition of the European dimension.

Did he feel being a judge was like living in a glass cage, especially following recent controversies? Was it not a lonely life?

"Most judges play golf, and they're just ordinary members of clubs. I play a lot of bridge.

"I don't think that in the last few years playing there was more than the odd reference to a case, and never to a case I was in.

"I would never discuss what I was doing during the day.

"Ninety per cent of my fellow players would know I'm a judge, but a few would not. Most people would call doctors `doctor', but no one ever calls me judge. It helps you get away from it."

Did he discuss cases with people close to him, even in general terms?

"No, never: only with colleagues. On the High Court you're on your own and you would talk to colleagues. But in the heel of the hunt it's your decision."

Mr Justice Barron has the slightly hesitant manner sometimes seen among those educated in English public schools.

He had a similar education - he was in Protestant boarding schools in Ireland from the age of six, because his father worked abroad, as a civil engineer on the railways in India.

"It seems barbaric now, but when you go through the system you don't mind." Although working in Dublin, he sent both his own sons to boarding school.

During school holidays he stayed with his mother's aunt and uncle, who were quite Orthodox, so he was immersed in Jewish culture then.

He says he never felt an outsider in his schools, Castle Park preparatory school and St Columba's. His parents came back to Dublin when he was 11, but he remained a boarder.

None the less, such disruption in his young life must have contributed to his ability to adapt, to distance himself from decisions and, once they were made, to move on.

"The reality of professional life is that you lose the personal touch and work in your role.

"If you are a doctor and if a person has a particularly horrible illness, you won't talk about the person, you'll talk about the illness.

"They say hard cases make bad law, and it's true. There are plenty of cases where you'd like to do something for one or other side, and you just can't because you know it's going to create chaos."

Asked if there were particular cases that stayed with him, he said: "There may have been cases where I was sorry it went the way it did, but I didn't carry it.

"When a judgment is reserved you think about it all the time, but once the judgment is given you forget about it."