Judge Patrick Brennan: Judge Patrick Brennan, who has died aged 82, was gifted with a tremendous sense of humour, a great knowledge of the law and innate decency.
Born in Athleague, Co Roscommon, Paddy Brennan was appointed as a District Court judge in 1974 and served for 21 years in Co Mayo.
After qualifying as a solicitor, he spent three years in Waterford, before coming to Mayo early in 1952. He was delighted with the change, professing many, many years later that he "felt at home again".
He joined Gerald Maguire solicitors of Claremorris as a partner in 1958 and, on Gerald's death in 1960, took over the practice, which he continued to operate up to his appointment to the bench 14 years later.
The opening in Mayo came about because Gerald Maguire required a solicitor to run offices at Claremorris and Ballinrobe.
"We got off to a bad start," he recalled in later years. "I fact I almost left again but in time we came first to tolerate each other and later we became great friends."
In his latter years, Judge Brennan was to recall that the huge difference between the courts in Mayo and those in Waterford in the 1950s was the large number of abusive language, assault and trespass summonses that were normally listed in Mayo.
With mirth he would recall defending a summons alleging trespass by two or three hens.
The vast majority of these cases ended up in a "one-all draw" but somehow both sides were satisfied if the respective solicitors got "dug into" the opposition.
Drunken driving was barely an issue when Paddy Brennan was a solicitor. This, of course, was long before the breathalyser and the blood or urine sample. Every such case had in those days to be proved by a doctor who would give evidence of making a defendant walk a straight line along the Garda station floor.
In the late 1990s, Judge Brennan was to reflect that punctuality was much better than in the 1950s and 1960s. He bemoaned the fact that drug cases and violent crime were increasing, concluding that the courts in the 1990s were far less innocent places than in the 1950s, when most of the summonses seemed much more innocuous, even, at times, hilarious.
There were prosecutions for having no bicycle lights, no light on a horse or donkey cart, no name on the cart, non-attendance at school, failure to cut thistles and docks, unlicensed "scrub" bulls, no dog licence, raiding orchards and throwing stones.
"Do they not sound very innocent compared to today's lists?" Judge Brennan wondered in an article for the Connaught Telegraph newspaper in 1996, two years after he stepped down from the bench.
The son of Michael Brennan, an independent and later Cumann na nGaedhael TD for Roscommon in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the young Patrick was deeply interested in politics but opted for a legal rather than a political career.
His hobbies included drama, gameshooting and angling (he represented Ireland in international fly-fishing competitions), and he acquired a skill in woodcarving. He was also an avid walker and was a familiar figure on the footpaths of Claremorris and the quiet byroads around the town.
His son, Michael, now carries on the family business, Maguire and Brennan.
He is survived by his wife, Mary, son Michael, and six daughters, Rosie, Marcella, Catriona, Patricia, Rita and Nora, and a sister, Eilis. A deeply religious person, he died peacefully after an illness, at home in the loving sanctuary created by his family.
Judge Patrick Brennan: born April 2nd, 1925; died February 7th, 2008