PROFILE: The first reaction of one senior counsel to the news that Judge Alan Mahon had made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners was shock. "I hope it's not true," he said.
Another, who had heard of Judge Mahon's statement, commented: "If a genuine mistake was made that was corrected, well, there would be few enough people, whose tax is not taken from them, who would not have made a mistake somewhere along the line."
Although he comes from a legal family, the son of a judge, with three brothers and his wife also lawyers, Judge Mahon lives quietly in Naas and does not frequent the watering holes popular with Dublin barristers.
Before his appointment he had a mixed practice of criminal, landlord and tenant, and personal injury litigation on the Midlands and Eastern circuit. This kind of work is high-volume, but rarely produces either the wealth or the publicity that comes from a practice centred on commercial law or High Court cases.
However, as a senior counsel he concentrated on personal injuries work, including a portion of the Army deafness cases that came to solicitors in Naas.
He enjoyed a reputation as a meticulous lawyer before his appointment as a judge, with an application to complex legal work and an ability to meet deadlines. "He's nice, quiet, with a good sense of humour. He's very sensible," a former colleague at the Bar said.
His father Séamus was a solicitor who served as a District Court judge from 1974 to 1989. Judge Mahon is the second of four sons of Séamus and Maylon (a family name derived from Mary).
Like his father, who died two years ago, he went to Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare.
But while his three brothers trained as solicitors and went into the family firm of Hoey & Denning in Tullamore, Alan trained as a barrister in King's Inns. He was called to the Bar in 1976 and became a senior counsel in 1988.
Friends describe him as a family man, a practising Catholic, someone who is happiest messing around with boats, and keeps a modest boat on the Shannon.
He likes rugby but does not frequent the golf scene so popular with many of his colleagues.
He and his wife Anne-Marie have four children.