Seamus Egan, who died on January 23rd aged 80, was a highly popular as well as a highly respected judge of the Supreme Court. While lawyers rarely speak ill of the dead, especially to journalists, former colleagues of the judge, who retired in 1995, stressed that this time the eulogies would be genuine.
"He took the law and his duty to do justice very, very seriously," said one senior counsel. "He was also very funny. He was a lovely man."
"He was genuinely concerned about justice, that things would be done right and that his clients would be treated right," said another.
He cited as an example his involvement in the Peter Pringle case, which provoked considerable controversy in 1993. In 1980 Egan had acted as senior counsel for Pringle, who was convicted by the Special Criminal Court of the murder of Garda Henry Byrne in Roscommon. The court accepted the evidence of a garda that Pringle had said, "I know you know I was involved . . .", though this statement was denied by the accused.
Seamus Egan visited Pringle in prison twice. In 1992 Pringle launched an appeal against his conviction on constitutional grounds and wrote to two of the lawyers in the case, including Seamus Egan. In 1993 Mr Justice Egan, then a Supreme Court judge, wrote to him saying he regretted the case had not gone the way they had hoped it would, and that he hoped the day would not be far off when Pringle would be at liberty. He did not sit in the court which heard the case, which was successful.
This attitude towards what he perceived as victims of injustice, even when their cases were not popular, as Peter Pringle's was not at the time, was typical of Egan, according to this senior counsel. "He was very courageous," he said.
He also defended Francis McGirl in the Mountbatten murder trial.
One of the best-known cases he heard while a High Court judge was an extradition case involving an Australian fugitive businessman, Robert Trimbole. Trimbole had been arrested under the Offences Against the State Act while extradition was awaited. Mr Justice Egan did not accept the evidence of gardaí that they had arrested him because he was carrying a gun, and released him.
In the Supreme Court in the 1992 X case he ruled that it would be a denial of the mother's right to life if it were required that her death be a certainty before a termination of her pregnancy would be permitted. However, in 1995 he gave a minority judgment in a case involving a ward of court who had been kept alive by artificial means for over 20 years, saying the removal of the feeding tube would kill a human being. "Any effort to measure its value [that of cognitive function] would be dangerous," he said.
On his retirement in 1995 he was described by the the attorney general at the time, Mr Dermot Gleeson, as having a "flawless record of patience and civility, with a unique, kindly, dry wit".
"He had a terrific, deadpan soft kind of humour," said another former colleague. He also told stories against himself. One example was given in the form of advice to newly married men. "He recalled that shortly after he returned from his honeymoon he broke the very nicest piece of Waterford glass he and his wife got as a wedding present while doing the washing up. He was banned from it from then on. He advised all young husbands to do likewise," the colleague said.
He was also concerned for the underprivileged and was involved with the Society of St Vincent de Paul. He was known to be personally very charitable.
He was the son of James Egan from Tuam, Co Galway, a principal officer in the Department of External Affairs (later Foreign Affairs), and Christian (née O'Donnell) from Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal.
He was born and grew up in Dublin and followed the well-trodden legal path of attendance at Blackrock College, UCD and the King's Inns.
He was called to the Bar in 1945 and worked on the Western Circuit and in the Four Courts. He took silk in 1962 and was appointed to the High Court in June 1984, aged 60, by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, although he was not a member of any political party. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1991.
He was a former Connacht inter-provincial tennis player and a member of Milltown Golf Club.
He was married to Ada Leahy, and most of their seven children are qualified lawyers, though not all practising: son, Brian, and daughters, Adrienne, Frances, Karen and Suzanne. Sandra is a medical doctor and Rory a businessman. There are nine grandchildren.
Seamus Egan; born December 1st, 1923; died January 23rd, 2004