A widower who raped and abused four of his daughters over a 20 year period was handed 10 life jail terms at the Central Criminal Court today.
The 59-year-old man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his victims, was said Court to be "a substantial farmer" from the west of Ireland.
He pleaded guilty to 12 sample counts out of the 153 charges originally laid against him.
The court heard the man - a father of six girls - was unable to explain why he abused his daughters.
The man's wife died of a brain haemorrhage 1986, when the youngest of the children was only five months old.
The abuse began when the girls were about six years old and continued until they reached puberty.
The man was also said to have been violent and his family to have been in fear of their lives.
One of the daughters, now aged 27, told the judge, Mr Justice Paul Carney: "He was supposed to be our father, he was supposed to look after us ... He destroyed our lives."
None of the sisters was aware that each of the others were being abused, the court heard. The abuse went on up to 1996.
In a statement to Gardaí, the man expressed remorse, saying: "I want to say how sorry I am. I will never get it out of my mind ... I did not realise what I was doing to a child's mind."
Mr Justice Carney imposed life sentences for each of the 10 rape charges, and five years for two indecent assault counts.
All of the terms will run concurrently.
The judge said the man's abuse of his daughters had been systematic and they had been profoundly affected by it.