Richard Cooke: Richard Cooke, who died on the first day of this year aged 94, practised law into his 90s.
He was the Father of the Bar, the oldest working member. He became a barrister in 1938, a senior counsel in 1959, and continued to practise until some 18 months ago. The only interruption - and for him it was a very important one - was between 1939 and 1945 when he joined the Army as an artillery officer. Thereafter he maintained a keen interest in military matters, and the works of the Military History Society.
He grew up in Phibsboro, on the north side of Dublin, where he attended St Peter's primary school, and O'Connell Schools, a secondary school which catered for pupils whose parents were not well off. He secured his future by gaining first place in the Dublin Corporation scholarship exam, an achievement he was proud of all his life, particularly for his school and his teacher Mr Lacey.
Gaelic games ruled at O'Connells, and Richard Cooke later told his children that he had played on the Dublin minor hurling team in Croke Park.
He never forgot his northside roots. One evening at King's Inns, close to his childhood home, his son John Cooke, by then also a barrister, found him looking out a window at a group of children playing football in the park at the front of the building. After a while and without turning away, he said: "You know, I am definitely the only bencher now and probably the only bencher ever, who played football as a gurrier down there".
At University College Dublin he studied commerce, not an obvious choice for an intending lawyer, but one which served him well in his legal career. For a while he worked for the Industrial Credit Company, and studied law.
As the second World War drew near, he left the law behind to serve his country as an artillery officer, commanding anti-aircraft units, and in the directorate of artillery.
Much of his service was spent in McKee barracks, and for many years afterwards he enjoyed attending dinners with his old comrades in the officers' mess.
His full-time service ended in October 1945, but he remained in the Reserve Forces until the end of 1948. His letter of resignation then speaks movingly of his pride in serving in the "national colours".
He was a soldier when he married Kathleen O'Reilly in 1942, and their first son, John, was born in 1944. Three more children followed over a space of 11 years. Two children followed him into the law.
John is a judge in the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, and their second daughter, Frances, is the revenue solicitor in Dublin.
Almost all his life he maintained his military bearing, head up, shoulders back, shoes highly polished, a dapper figure. His practice covered commercial, chancery, general common law, valuation, and he acted for local authorities and other public bodies, and the Revenue Commissioners, as well as private and corporate clients.
At one stage in the early 1980s, his home in Clonskeagh was attacked by firebomb though nobody was ever convicted in relation to that incident.
On being chided by a judge in a north Co Dublin valuation case for referring to a property as being "in the north", and thus in Northern Ireland, he offered this explanation: "Yes m'lud, but I was born in Phibsboro and for me everything north of Binn's Bridge is in the north."
A friend from military days, Vivion de Valera, asked him to become legal adviser to the Irish Press group. Subsequently, Richard Cooke was one of the creditors left unpaid by former Irish Press solicitor Elio Malocco.
Richard Cooke was fascinated by the life of Avril Deverell, the second woman to be called to the Irish Bar, and the first to practise. Earlier she had driven ambulances on the battlefields of the first World War.
She became a barrister on the same day as her brother, and Cooke's memoir of her was published in Bacik, Costello and Drew's report Gender inJustice, published in conjunction with a 2003 Women and Law conference.
As the oldest surviving former auditor of the society, he also contributed to James Meenan's Centenary History of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin.
He is survived by his children John, Eleanor (Kaiser), Frances and Richard. His wife Kathleen predeceased him 11 years ago.
Richard Noel Cooke, born August 22nd, 1912; died January 1st, 2007.