Judge Al O'Dea held his last court in Ennis, Co Clare, on Tuesday and then retired. The next day he did some gardening at his Galway home before going out to the Anno Santo Hotel to celebrate his 70th birthday.
A district justice for 18 years in Co Clare, he said it had been a pleasant experience. "But then again, I was in a very pleasant area. I was dealing with mid-western lawyers generally speaking and they were wonderful to work with."
However, he has become increasingly concerned at the drink-related offences being committed by young people on weekend nights when nightclubs are in full swing.
He believes education programmes and a separation of licensed premises from dance halls could help solve the problem. "If you had dancing in one premises and drinking in another premises, you would be halfway to solving the problem. I would like to see the ballroom of romance coming back," he said.
In family law cases, he has seen the destructive effect alcohol has on personal relationships and believes the public could learn useful lessons from those cases. Journalists are not allowed to report these cases for reasons of confidentiality, although it has been argued that cases could be covered in a way which would respect the privacy of the parties involved. "If the parties did not want it, I would have a serious difficulty," he said.
The most harrowing case he adjudicated on was when Brendan O'Donnell came before him as a teenager for discharging a firearm at a garda who narrowly escaped serious injury. "He really needed urgent treatment. All we could do was send him away for assessment for two or three weeks. There was no place he could be treated and kept securely. He kept breaking out of where he was." A few years later O'Donnell, who died in 1997, was pronounced guilty but insane for the murder of three people in east Clare. "He was a disturbed child and needed treatment and did not get it. It is as simple as that."
From east Galway, Judge O'Dea was educated at St Jarlath's College, Tuam, and NUI Galway. He worked as a solicitor in Galway city until his appointment as a judge in 1983. He welcomes the Courts Service, which has taken over the function of managing the courts from the Department of Justice. "There is much more back-up and there is a lot of work being done in getting proper accommodation for the district court."