‘Poor box’ judge James O’Connor retires

It is thought the judge, 66, who has been on sick leave, was turned down for an extension of his post, the Irish Examiner reports.

His normal date of retirement as a district court judge should have been July last year, when he turned 65, but he served an extra year, as permitted under statute.

Judge O’Connor is known for his liberal use of the court’s poor box, making offenders contribute to it in lieu of more severe punishments.

Figures from last year indicate that €400,000 had been raised in Kerry, compared to a total of €1.5 million across the country.

Judge O’Connor was known to have directed boy racers to pay £3,000 to the poor box to avoid harsher penalties while cannabis users had their cases struck out for payments of €400 or €500 to the box.

He was appointed to the bench in 1998 by then Justice Minister John O’Donoghue. In 2005 he was appointed a judge in his home county, presiding over South Kerry, Tralee and Listowel.

Michael Healy-Rae TD praised Judge O’Connor for his keen understanding of rural life.

“I am very sorry to see Judge O’Connor going off the bench as being from a rural community himself, he had a great understanding of the issues and the problems people had in life, particularly coming from rural areas — be they rural isolation, unemployment, and depression.

“When you have someone sitting in judgement of people you need them to be able to look at the complete picture and I believe that Judge O’Connor was very capable in that regard,” he said.