Ms Justice Bronagh O’Hanlon retires from the High Court

Ms Justice Bronagh O'Hanlon has said it had been the greatest honour imaginable to have been given the privilege of serving her country and all of its people as a judge of the High Court.

The judge , who retired on Friday, said she had enjoyed every challenge she met and “the harder the better”.

As a fluent Gaelgoir, she championed and breathed new life into the Irish language at the highest judicial level.

In a tribute on behalf of the Bar Council, of which he is vice chairman, Seamus Clarke SC noted that only six months ago, in a case heard wholly in Irish, Ms Justice O'Hanlon held the State obliged to provide an Irish version of certain Acts required by applicants.

In her judgment, she had said there were people, particularly in the Gaeltacht or others choosing to speak the Irish language, who wanted to use the language on an everyday basis.

She held they had constitutional rights to do so and the State had a constitutional obligation to facilitate the use of Irish by citizens on an equal footing with English.

Mr Clarke said she had organised many conferences and had worked hard at fostering a strong relationship between family lawyers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and the foundational work she had done on North-South relations had left an indelible mark. As a judge, she had been pre-eminent in personal injury and family law.

Tributes to Judge O’Hanlon were, due to Covid restrictions, heard by selected representatives of various legal bodies and agencies and were broadcast via Zoom to hundreds of her relatives throughout the world, including “a wonderful 93-year-old mother.”

“I have always believed that the courts were the cornerstone of democracy and always took the view no matter who the person was or how humble that they deserved to be dealt with in an even-handed and fair manner,” Ms Justice O’Hanlon said. “Without that we have nothing.”

She hoped they would soon return to trials being heard in the important dynamic of the courtroom.

Three generations of Mr Justice O’Hanlon’s family were in court for the retirement tributes and she thanked them for all the help she had received since being called to the Bar in 1989, taking silk in 2005 and since having been appointed to the bench in 2014.