What do judges do when they retire? "Fishing, shooting, walking the dog and snooker," replied Judge Brendan Wallace, who left the bench as a district court judge in west Cork last Friday.
Snooker? Somehow, one does not envisage former judges mingling with former convicts in dimly lit snooker halls or pub pool rooms.
Judge Wallace was reassuring on this point. He was careful about where he took a drink and played his snooker, he said. In such activities, he indulged himself at a Cork tennis club where a chalk dust decision would neither have been a matter of sentencing nor confrontation.
But during his walks with the dog, walkingstick in hand, of an evening, the judge said he always kept his eyes open, just in case. From time to time, he did encounter people who had come before him. There was never any bother, though.
As he leaves the bench, he does so with mixed emotions, considers himself to have been a fair judge and looks forward to the opportunities that retirement may hold. For the past week there have been tributes and presentations to him from many quarters as he has moved about west Cork presiding over the many courts under his jurisdiction. He was a judge who demanded and got respect in his courtroom and who would not tolerate unruly behaviour.
He has very definite ideas about the majesty of the law and his role in upholding it, but he eschewed publicity - bar that which emanated naturally from his courtroom decisions - and once the business of the day was done, he didn't linger too much.
And there was a lot of publicity. Judge Wallace dealt with almost all the sensational drugs cases in west Cork over the past number of years, and the fishery ones too. His jurisdiction ran from Kinsale to Castletownbere - a hotbed of clashes between Irish and Spanish trawlermen - and his courts were dotted along a coastline which has seen a remarkable increase in attempts to import drugs in recent years.
It is a coastline with so many indentations which neither our Naval Service nor the Garda could ever hope to man with total effectiveness. That's not to say that successes didn't come - they did - and usually, it was Judge Wallace who presided over the late-night court or special hearing. In drug cases, he would hear the preliminary evidence and then dispatch those involved to custody and a higher court.
On the fishing side, he was never lenient with illegal fishermen or those from foreign fleets who had used their superior muscle to intimidate the less powerful Irish boats. His successor will have to deal with this issue too.
His has been a colourful career. He will miss the bench, he thinks, but not the driving. His writ ran from the deep south-west up to Millstreet in north Cork. Often, because of the need for special courts, it meant he was on the road seven days each week. Leaving that aspect of his life will not be a regret.
After 23 years on the bench, in the Dublin Metropolitan District and then Dun Laoghaire before moving, at his own request, to west Cork in December 1981, he believes the time has come to enjoy life a little more. A Mullingar man with a legal background in his family, he always knew what he wanted to do with his life.