The legal world turned out in large numbers for a thanksgiving service for the late retired Court of Criminal Appeal judge Declan Budd at St Paul’s Church in Glenageary, Co Dublin.
The ceremony followed a cremation service earlier on Tuesday at Mount Jerome Crematorium at Harold’s Cross in Dublin for the retired judge, who died on August 21st aged 81.
A former president of the Law Reform Commission from 2000 to 2005, he was described by his son Roland Budd as having a “great interest in people”.
“He was a great encourager of young people in their interests and careers and, for him, the human interactions, social and professional, were always a hugely significant part of his life as a lawyer.”
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A foundation scholar of Trinity College Dublin, he studied history and law, was called to the Bar in 1968, took silk in 1981 and was appointed a High Court judge in 1991. Mr Justice Budd was appointed to the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2008 before retiring in 2011.
His son said he “very much enjoyed reading aloud to his grandchildren” and, to some laughter, highlighted a favourite children’s book, The Highway Rat, about a rat engaged in a “wild crime spree” that “ends in a sort of restorative justice scheme involving a steady job in a cake shop”.
At the service, led by rector of St Paul’s Rev Gary Dowd, prayers were also said by former Archdeacon of Dublin the Ven Gordon Linney, with music by organist Caroline Barnes.
Mr Justice Budd’s friend David McConnell described him as “our lodestar, our compass, our guide”.
Among the chief mourners were Mr Justice Budd’s children Roland, Una, Aoife and Leila, his sisters Alison and Clodagh, brothers-in-law Palmer and Brian, his grandchildren and his carer Cristina, who looked after him following the death 12 years ago of his wife, Ann.
The mourners also included Capt Ivan McDonald, representing Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik, Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell, and Supreme Court judges Elizabeth Dunne and Gerard Hogan.
Also in attendance were former Supreme Court judges Fidelma Macken, Mary Finlay Geoghegan, Nial Fennelly, Mary Laffoy, John MacMenamin and Harry Whelehan.
The mourners included former president of the Court of Appeal George Birmingham, former Court of Appeal judge John Hedigan, former High Court judge Roderick Murphy and his wife, Patricia Murphy, and former High Court judges Michael White and Daniel Herbert.
Also in attendance were former Circuit Court judge Anthony Kennedy and former director of public prosecutions James Hamilton.
