Some men have yet to decide what they will do next, among them 49-year-old union activist Brian Wood and his son Gary, 25.

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Sir Brian Kerr bristles at the suggestion that his plush wood panelled chambers are in effect an ivory tower, and that he and other members of the judiciary are out of touch with the real world.

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Mr Wood's death came almost a year after his father Brian died from leukaemia on 21 January.

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