Kildare tributes to great colleague and wonderful friend - the late Judge Grainne O'Neill

Tributes were paid to the late District Court Judge Grainne O’Neill at Naas Circuit Court today.

Judge O'Neill (46), from Athlone, passed away on Thursday, May 10.

At the opening of Naas Circuit Court this morning, Judge Eoin Garavan sent his sympathies to her family.

He said she was a great colleague and personal help to him even though he did not know her that well. That was the sort of person she was, he said.

She was appointed a judge on April 15 2014, aged 42 years.

She sat in Naas as a judge and previously served as a solicitor with Wilkinson Price.

Judge Garavan said she had great insight and kindness and was a person of warmth and energy.  In recent years she faced her illness with great courage and sense of humour, said Judge Garavan.

“Very few who met Grainne would forget her,” he said, sending sympathies to her father, retired Colonel Terry O’Neill, her brother, Olaf, sister, Fiona, relations and friends.

Judge Garavan passed on condolences on behalf of Judge Desmond Zaidan and local legal professionals.

“She will be a deeply missed colleague,” he said.

Fiona Kerins BL, on behalf of the Bar Association, said Grainne was insightful, pragmatic, very respectful and evenhanded.  She had an amazing capacity for work and an amazing memory. She was warm, generous and kind.

Ann O’Callaghan, on behalf of court staff, said they had all known her for years and found her kind, courteous and having a great sense of fun.

Her friend, solicitor Helen Coughlan spoke on behalf of the Kildare Solicitors and Bar Association. She said there wasn’t a practitioner in this room who was not touched by Grainne’s friendship.

“She looked after her colleagues. She became the youngest judge in the District Court in 2014. She was very hardworking. She could be in Belmullet on Tuesday, Ennis on Wednesday and the CCJ in Dublin on Thursday,” she said.

Ms Coughlan said Grainne “adored the District Court” and treated everyone with respect who appeared before her.

She was social secretary of the Kildare Bar Association and organised some events “which have gone down in history.”

She had been ill for the previous six years.

“Never once did I hear her complain,” said Ms Coughlan. “To pay a lasting tribute to Grainne’s memory, I think if we as practitioners embraced Grainne’s collegiality for our fellow practitioners. We have lost a great colleague and wonderful friend.”

She said her friend loved books and summed her up with a quote from F Scott Fitzgerald: “She was beautiful for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul.”

Garda Supt Martin Walker said; “she had a distinguished career.”

Judge O’Neill is the  daughter of Terry O’Neill (Col. Retired) and the late Dr. Ursula O’Neill.

She earned Arts (1991) and Law (1995)  degrees from UCG and qualified as a solicitor in 1999.

She has practised in many areas of law and from 2000 to 2007 worked with the Free Legal Advice Centres.

She is survived by her father, Terry, brother Olaf, sister Fiona, sister-in-law Christina, brother-in-law Alan, nephews Harry and Simon, with whom she recently visited Disneyland.

Her Requiem Mass will take place in St Mary’s Church, Athlone, this Saturday (May 12)at 12 noon.

She will repose at her home after that. Her removal, for burial to Fanore Cemetery (Co. Clare), will take place on Sunday morning at 1.30pm approximately.

Family flowers only, donations, if desired, to South Westmeath Hospice.