Late judge Grainne O’Neill remembered at essay award ceremony

The late Judge Grainne O’Neill, a former student of Our Lady’s Bower, was last week commemorated at an awards ceremony in the school for the first annual Grainne O’Neill Memorial Essay Competition.

The competition was open to all schools in Westmeath and Offaly and first, second and third prizes were awarded to students in Our Lady’s Bower.

Gráinne O’Neill became the youngest judge in Ireland when she was appointed to the District Court bench in 2014, aged 42, but sadly passed away in 2018 after an illness.

Speaking at the ceremony which was attended by several legal professionals, Circuit Court Judge Keenan Johnson said that while he didn’t know Grainne very well, he “knew her by reputation, and what a reputation she had.”

“She was an exemplary lawyer, an exemplary sportswoman and an exemplary judge,” he said. “I think it is fortuitous that we have this presentation here in the Bower where she was a past pupil. She was very proud of being a student here, and the school is very proud of her and rightly so.

“She was such a larger-than-life figure and she packed so much into her 46 years that would leave the rest of us envious. She’s a shining example to us all on how to live a good life and a fun life.”

He gave a warm welcome to Grainne’s father Terry, brother Olaf and sister Fiona, and commended the prize winners. Entrants were asked to write an essay on the question of ‘Should the age of criminal responsibility remain at 12 years old, or should it be increased?’

In first place was Clare Reidy, who said it was a great honour to win the competition especially with the esteem with which Grainne was held.In second place was Róisín Ní Dhuibhir, and in third place was Gabrielle Dalby.

Judge Johnson said Grainne wanted students to take an interest in the law, to know their rights and how to fight for them, and that a “competition like this sets the seeds for young students to become great lawyers.”

Grainne’s father Terry presented the winners with their prizes and said the family is pleased she is being honoured in this way.

“Grainne herself would have been embarrassed but she deserves this tribute,” he said.

“She was an extraordinary person,” he continued.

“She had great concern for other people that would manifest in different ways.

“As a simple example, she used to come home in the evenings and dash off and wouldn’t come home until 2.30am. What she was doing was going down to Nicky McFadden who was suffering with motor neuron disease and sitting with her in the evenings, and reading to her and trying to make life as good as possible for her.

“She had a knack for impersonating people. She had an uncanny impression of Paschal Donohoe and the past few weeks I’ve been getting calls from people saying they heard him on the radio and all they could think about was Grainne!”

Her sporting achievements were also mentioned, having completed two long distance triathlons in Switzerland and Spain.

Terry also said she was greatly influenced by the late Sr Christopher Callan.

“Grainne thought she was just great and Sr Christopher thought the same of her, so when Grainne learnt that Sr Christopher studied law before she became a nun she knew that’s what she wanted to do.”

Terry also said that she kept her sense of humour into her final hours.

“She asked to be buried in Fanore beside her mother. There’s a pub she used to go to down there and before she left us she told us to go down and do it up because there were going to be a lot of grumpy old judges at the funeral!”

Principal of the school Anne Beades also paid tribute to Grainne, saying she comes up in conversation regularly.

“I know some of the staff would love to have been here, but with the climate we’re living in that wasn’t possible.

“We were very proud when we heard the news that we had won first, second and third prize.”