Justice Feargus Flood is 72 this weekend and retired yesterday as a judge of the High Court. The occasion was marked in the traditional way, with tributes from colleagues, as he wore his wig and gown for the last time. Then there was a lunch hosted in his opulent chambers by the President of the High Court, Justice Frederick Morris, and attended by his wife, his family and colleagues. Later, the judge attended his last function as a High Court judge and bencher at a dinner in the King's Inns, when Paul Callan SC was made a bencher. Flood is to be re-elected as an honorary life bencher. All the legal eagles of note and esteem were present.
But rest assured, the judge is not retiring entirely to concentrate on his leisure pursuits of sailing and walking his two dogs. Under special Department of Justice remuneration arrangements, the Flood tribunal will continue full steam ahead and the Sole Member will be pressing his inquiries. Indeed he could be in employment far longer than characters half his age appearing before him.