THERE was an unusual international gathering on the Greek island of Paxos on Thursday of last week to pay tribute to the late Judge Robert O hUadhaigh. The district court judge had been a frequent visitor over the years with senior counsel Greg Murphy and his wife Jean and, predictably, had become a great favourite with local people, foreign residents and the regular visitors, most of them British. When they heard of his death last year, they arranged to honour his memory.

The gathering took place on the pier in the small port of Loggos and his colleagues from the Bar, Greg Murphy and Dan Herbert SC, were there as well as Mary Kotsonouris, who sat on the bench with him and who gave the eulogy.

There were speeches in Irish, Greek, English and German and readings from James Joyce, Seamus Heaney and Friedrich Schiller. The Greek friends presented an icon to be passed on to his family in Ireland and a violinist played while a small representative group sailed out to lay a wreath of fresh flowers on the Ionian Sea. Then some 50 people sat down to lunch and an exchange of lively reminiscences of a much-loved friend.