MAJESTY OF THE LAW MUCH IN EVIDENCE AS JUDGE MACBRIDE PRESIDES FOR FINAL TIME

By Peter Hughes

“God bless you all, God keep you safe.”

These were the final words spoken from the bench of Monaghan District Court on Monday by Judge Sean MacBride, and they followed a spontaneous burst of prolonged applause from all assembled in the courtroom as he dealt with his final case in that venue prior to his retirement on Sunday next.

The proceedings had commenced before a packed courtroom around noon when representatives of all facets of legal activity paid eloquent tribute to the charismatic and sometimes controversial Donegal man who had presided over the Court District No 5 of Cavan and Monaghan since November 2004.

Judge MacBride in his response professed himself humbled by the tributes. “It has been a great privilege to serve the people – I have all the faults of a human being, but I hope I did my best,” he stated.

In one of the last cases he dealt with, the Judge displayed the dispensation of justice tempered with mercy that has been a consistent feature of his tenure on the Monaghan bench although one less publicised than his occasional forthright and sometimes provocative utterances.

A man came before him on charges of forging prescriptions to obtain medication from a pharmacy. After something of the man’s ….