The State's first female High Court Judge, the Hon Miss Justice Mella Carroll, has retired after 25 years on the bench.
Judge Carroll was the longest serving judge of the High Court.
She was appointed to the High Court in 1980 after a 23 year career at the bar which she had been called to in 1957, following her studies in Kings Inns for which she was awarded the John Brooke scholarship.
In court today, Judge Carroll joked "following a career of 48 years, 25 spent as a High Court Judge: at 71 I am taking early retirement".
In the High Court Judge Carroll worked in all its divisions, was a member of the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation and carried out an enquiry into sexual harassment in the United Nations in 1993.
As chair of the Commission on Nursing she delivered a landmark report for this commission in 1998 as well as being the Chancellor of Dublin City University from 2001 to present she also served as the President of the International Association of Women Judges from 2000-2002.
Originally from Dublin, judge Carroll speaks English, French and German and qualified with a BA degree in German and French in 1954.
She serves on and has chaired the boards of many bodies such as the Haemophiliac HIV Trust, St Francis Hospice Raheny and the Irish Centre for Commercial Law Studies ( UCD).
In recent years Judge Carroll was awarded doctorates in law from Ulster University and the NUI and she is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons since 2002.
Speaking on behalf of the Government, the Attorney General Rory Brady thanked her for her public service, saying "she had delivered [it] with firmness and fairness".