The funeral of Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman has taken place in Ranelagh, Dublin.
President Michael D Higgins, his wife Sabina, and aide de camp, Lt Col Michael Kiernan, attented. Taoiseach Enda Kenny was represented by his aide de camp, Comdt Dave Foley.
The Government was represented by the Attorney General Marie Whelan, the judiciary by Chief Justice Susan Denham and the Garda Commissioner by Assistant Commissioner Jack Nolan. The Northern Ireland judiciary was also represented.
A huge attendance of over 1,000 mourners included many former and serving judges, politicians, academics, media personalities and friends. They joined Mr Hardiman's widow, retired judge Yvonne Murphy, and their sons, Daniel, Eoin and Hugh, in saying farewell to a renaissance man who was clearly much admired and loved.
In a eulogy, his best friend senior counsel Michael McDowell, said Ireland had been robbed of a person who, uniquely, had excelled in a variety of areas, including law, history and friendship.
“I find it hard to convey in words the fun and sparkle [Adrian and Yvonne] brought to their friends,” he said.
As a judge, his priority had been the individual, as well as ensuring the system did not “grind him down”.
Mr Hardiman’s relationship with technology, in which machines and gadgets usually won, was recalled amid laughter.
In his homily, Fr Myles O’Reilly said Mr Hardiman had a voracious appetite for knowledge and noted that “intellectuals need mystical expression to take them out of the prison of their minds”.
Mr Hardiman's friend, the historian Patrick Geoghegan, read a poetic reflection: "You can shed a tear that he is gone/ Or you can smile because he had lived."
After the funeral Mass, Mr Hardiman’s remains were taken to Mt Jerome for cremation.
