Hundreds attend removal of Circuit Court judge Katherine Delahunt

Leading figures from the worlds of politics and law were among hundreds of people who gathered at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook last night for the removal of Circuit Court judge Katherine Delahunt.

Ms Delahunt died aged 58 at St Vincent’s Private Hospital on Wednesday following a long illness.

A short service was given by Fr Gerry O’Connor, a Redemptorist priest from the Cherry Orchard parish, who told the congregation he was a friend of Ms Delahunt and her husband, Stephen O’Byrnes.

Fr O'Connor said he spent some time talking with Ms Delahunt in hospital shortly before her death, when they discussed a range of topics including the Irish writer Conor Cruise O'Brien and the book Going Home by Colm Keane, which deals with death.

“Fear is like a fog,” said Fr O’Connor. “It spreads everywhere and it falsifies everything. I sat with Katherine in St Vincent’s and we talked and prayed together. We talked about fears. I shared a little bit of my own experience from talking to people who have been close to death in underprivileged parts of the world.”

Fr O’Connor told the congregation that “unfortunately” many of the parishioners where he lives and works had come before Ms Delahunt during her time on the bench.

Rare

“One of them was telling me about something that had happened to him at one stage,” he said. “I asked him who the judge was and he told me it was Katherine Delahunt. I asked him what she was like, and he said ‘Gerry, she’s a rare bird.’ I asked him what he meant by that, and he said: ‘She slaughtered me but she seemed to believe in me.’ I thought that was a unique line.”

Among those in attendance were Chief Justice Mrs Susan Denham; president of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns; the Supreme Court’s Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, Mr Justice John MacMenamin and Mr Justice Peter Charleton and former Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Nial Fennelly; as well as High Court judges Mr Justice Tony Hunt, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan and Mr Justice Michael Moriarty.

From the world of politics, former Fianna Fáil minister Mary Hanafin was in attendance, as well as former Progressive Democrats figures Mary Harney and Pat Cox.

Ms Delahunt worked as a solicitor for 22 years before serving as a judge of the Circuit Court from 2001. She was the first female solicitor to be appointed a judge in the Circuit Court.