A few months ago the Observer newspaper, rather improbably, sent a reporter from London to look at proceedings in a courthouse in a part of Donegal that prides itself on being the most law abiding in the country. The writer described the judge, Liam McMenamin, as a man with a well lived in face", which was an admirable description of an admirable man. Liam retired as a circuit judge shortly afterwards and the many tributes paid to him then mirrored the respect and liking he inspired.
Sadly, his retirement was only to last three weeks. Always a keen traveller, he had planned a walking holiday in Nepal and there, on a hillside far from home, he was to die suddenly. It was a death that sent shock waves through a huge body of friends, colleagues, his sister Maureen and his extensive family of nieces, nephews and cousins. It seemed impossible to believe that we had lost someone so kind, generous, and humorous and life seems emptier without him.
Liam's death ends a McMenamin family connection with the legal profession in Donegal that goes back to the 1920s, when his father, W. T. McMenamin, was State Solicitor. He himself succeeded to that position in 1957 and held it until his appointment as a district justice in 1982, serving in Dublin, Limerick and Galway before returning to his native county in 1986. He had qualified with distinction in his law exams and his colleagues have paid tribute to his outstanding abilities as a jurist, to which we're added courtesy, fairness, and humanity for all who came into his court.
As well as this, Liam took an active part in the life of Donegal and particularly on his native towns of Ballybofey and Stranorlar. He busied himself with the affairs of the local cattle mart, the Butt Hall, and the Historical, Society, among other activities. He and a group of friends formed a walking group, and he owned an island between Burtonport and Aranmore. He had been a good soccer player in his youth with UCD, Swilly Rovers and the then junior Finn Harps and also played rugby with Strabane and Sligo. To the end, he was a keen bridge player and golfer.
His wife, Martha, was a Presbyterian from Tyrone and it was a lasting sorrow to him that, in a non ecumenical time, they had to go to America to be married. She died in 1982.
My last memory of him is of a happy occasion, a family lunch to mark his retirement and his seventieth birthday ... Like Mr Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, Liam liked old things, old houses, old wine and old friends. The food was good and the wine, the product of trips he had made to Burgundy and Champagne, flowed as freely as the fun. Though none of us knew it then, it was a good parting. He is buried in a quiet churchyard with his beloved Martha, from where one can see across the fields to his lovely old house. May the sod rest lightly on him, a true Donegal gentleman.