Tributes have been paid to the Inspector of Prisons, former High Court judge Dermot Kinlen, who has died suddenly in Kerry aged 77.
Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan described him as a "trenchant advocate for the rights of prisoners" and the Prison Officers' Association (POA) said he was a man of "empathy and immense courage".
A trenchant critic of prison conditions, Mr Justice Kinlen was appointed a High Court judge in 1993 and on his retirement in 2002 became the State's first Inspector-General of Prisons and Places of Detention.
A distinguished international jurist, he graduated from UCD and King's Inns, became a senior counsel in 1971 and a judge to the Court of Appeal of the OECD in 1990. He was a member of the visiting committee of St Patrick's Institution for juvenile offenders for 12 years and chairman of the Mountjoy committee. He also visited prisons abroad as part of international monitoring groups.
His maternal grandfather Tom O'Donnell was a judge and was the nationalist MP for west Kerry. He himself practised on the southwestern circuit (Limerick, Kerry and Clare) as a junior counsel in the 1950s.
He had a holiday home in Sneem, Co Kerry, where he died yesterday, and was a great ambassador for the county, barristers on the southwestern circuit said.
Paying tribute, the Minister for Justice said "Dermot Kinlen was a personal friend and professional colleague of mine. He had a distinguished career as a barrister and served as a judge of the High Court.
"Following his appointment as our Inspector of Prisons in April 2002 he continued to be a trenchant advocate of the rights of prisoners."
The director general of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell said prisoners and the prison system generally had lost a true friend. Judge Kinlen took on the role of inspector "at a time of enormous change within the prison system and he did his job without fear or favour".
POA general secretary John Clinton said he "sought answers and spoke the truth in the very best interests of prisoners and prison staff. He did a wonderful job and all of us will remember him as a man of empathy and immense courage."
President of the Irish Human Rights Commission Dr Maurice Manning said he was "a great champion of human rights", who "worked tirelessly to highlight poor conditions in Irish prisons".
Labour TD and Leas-Cheann Comhairle Brendan Howlin described him as a "a diligent and courageous man of reform, who will be greatly missed".
Green Party justice spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said "his unique and fearless voice will be sorely missed".
Justice Kinlen is survived by his sister Aideen, brother Kevin, sister-in-law Deirdre, nieces and nephews. His removal is to Donnybrook church in Dublin tomorrow at 5pm. Funeral Mass is at 10am on Saturday with burial in Deans Grange Cemetery.
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