Retirement of Munster’s longest-serving solicitor

One of the finest legal minds in the country has retired after 65 years of practice.

Edward O’Driscoll, the longest-serving solicitor in Munster and the third- longest in Ireland, was at the head of his family firm PJ O’Driscolls Solicitors of Bandon and Kenmare for six decades.

He has retired just as he reached his 86th birthday.

“To have 65 years in a row is exceptional,” said Mr O’Driscoll, as he reflected on a long working life as a figurehead of the profession in the South-West.

The eldest in his family, Mr O’Driscoll qualified as a solicitor in 1948. For the next four years he worked side-by-side with his father, PJ, who had founded the firm in Bandon in 1899.

Following PJ’s death in 1952, Mr O’Driscoll, then 24, found himself at the helm. His brothers, Pat and Barry, also followed him into the family business.

Over the decades, Mr O’Driscoll travelled the length of the country defending “every form of humankind”, from a man who opted for the warmth of prison in winter and robbery in the summer to a case in which children in a Co Cork school were being beaten by a teacher.

He has been paid in shrimp, scallops, pollock, and tuna out of the boot of a car. “But the most unusual payment I ever got was a strawberry roan pony from a man who I defended on a charge of larceny,” he said.

“She was a marvellous pony and I sold her afterwards for a good price.”

He was president of the West Cork Bar Association for 24 years and briefed Jack Lynch when the former taoiseach was a barrister.

At 86, Mr O’Driscoll has no intention of putting his feet up. “I wonder why the Lord has spared me my thinking capacity. For my retirement, charity will occupy my time,” he said.

The family tradition continues. Son PJ and daughter Maeve are partners in the firm, and Mr O’Driscoll’s granddaughter Valerie is studying with a view to becoming a solicitor.