Judge retires: tributes paid to Mr Justice Esmond Smyth

Mr Justice Esmond Smyth who retired last Friday

Mr Justice Esmond Smyth who retired last Friday. Tributes were paid by Paul O’Higgins SC for the Bar Council, James McGuill for the Law Society and Margaret O’Neill for the Courts Service.

Mr Justice Smyth was appointed a Circuit Court judge in 1992 and was president of that court from 1998-2005. From 2005 he also sat as an ex-officio judge of the High Court and since 2008 he has been chairman of the Residential Institutions Redress Board, in which role he will continue. This photograph was taken to mark the end of his term of office as Circuit Court president in 2005.