In an emotional farewell yesterday, Miss Justice Mella Carroll retired as a judge of the High Court, the first woman to hold the office in this jurisdiction.
She said that when she started there were mostly men and very few women at the Bar. It took her years to screw up the courage to say she should not to be referred to as "my lord", she recalled.
In a crowded court 12 of the Four Courts, Attorney General Rory Brady SC said that when Miss Justice Carroll was appointed to the High Court in 1980, as the first woman, it was a milestone in Irish legal history.
"Her administration of justice with courtesy and civility to witnesses and lawyers was a hallmark of her tenure of office," he said.
Mr Brady said she was chairwoman of the Bar Council in the late 1970s and 1980s and inaugurated the new law library.
Among many other appointments, she chaired the Commission on Nursing, producing a landmark report, and was a judge of the administrative tribunal of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva.
He thanked her for her public service.
Bar Council chairman Hugh Mohan SC said that when Miss Justice Carroll was a barrister and chairwoman of the Bar Council, it was a very different time. Now 43 per cent of the law library members were women, and in two years this would be 50 per cent.
Miss Justice Carroll, now 71, said this was the end of a very happy career. She owed a lot of people gratitude, first to her own family, to old friends and colleagues, High Court presidents, registrars and ushers.
Commissioner of the Garda Síochána Noel Conroy and Ciarán Kelly on behalf of the registrars also paid tribute.