Funeral of late Supreme Court judge told of ‘enormous personality’

Retired Supreme Court judge Frank Griffin was "sociable, loving, very interested in people and their stories, courteous and never overbearing, he always put people at their ease – qualities we observed in him and we believe would have assisted him in is role as an advocate and as a judge," his funeral in Dublin was told this morning. "He and his enormous personality will be sorely missed," said his son Peter in the Church of the Good Shepherd, Churchtown.

Aged 97, Mr Justice Griffin died at St James’s Hospital in Dublin last Sunday.

Appointed to the High Court in 1971 and the Supreme Court in 1973, he became presiding judge at the Special Criminal Court "at a time when terrorist violence was at a peak." It meant "the need for both armed personal security at all times and a permanent Garda presence in the family home, " recalled Peter.

His wife Helen “in particular, found this enormously intrusive. They loved to take long walks but were prevented from doing so unless accompanied by armed gardaí two steps behind them.” Both “would conspire to get away for a few hours privacy.”

Family members would be sent out “to tell the gardaí on duty that they had heard something out the back and Frank and Helen would use the distraction to escape out the front for a much longed-for unaccompanied walk.”

Mr Justice Griffin retired in 1991 and, Peter recalled, “he adapted extraordinarily well”. In his life he was “a respectful son, a wonderful brother, a devoted husband, a loving father, and adored grandfather and a great friend”, said Peter.

In the homily Mass celebrant Fr Dermot Nestor said "Frank was totally committed to his family and his late wife Helen" to whom he had been married for 61 years before her death in 2012. A son of theirs, Michael, died in 2009.

Fr Nestor continued: “He was ready to die. He had no fear of death. He was ready to meet his maker.” He was “a man of great faith”.

Chief mourners were children, Gerard (a judge of the Circuit Court), Mary, Fiona, Fran and Peter. Among the large attendance were serving and retired members of the judiciary, including retired Supreme Court Judge Catherine McGuinness, also former Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, and former Minister for Foreign Affairs David Andrews.

Burial following the funeral Mass took place at Shanganagh cemetery in south Dublin.