he was indeed but the circuit court lad got the bullet as well
n October 1997, Philip Sheedy was jailed for four years for killing, while he was driving drunk, Anne Ryan, a Tallaght mother of two young children. Sheedy spent six months in Mountjoy and was then transferred to Shelton Abbey.
On October 14th, 1998, Joe Burke, a long-time associate of Bertie Ahern and one of the contributors to the infamous dig-out, visited Sheedy in Shelton Abbey. Some weeks later, Sheedyâs case was re-listed and he was released from prison.
Both Supreme Court judge Hugh OâFlaherty and the judge who released Philip Sheedy, Cyril Kelly, resigned as a result of the scandal that blew up when these facts emerged subsequently.
Philip Sheedy had worked for Joe Burkeâs pub refurbishment business. Though we were told that Joe Burke never discussed the case with Bertie Ahern, in July 1998 the Taoiseach, by an extraordinary coincidence, asked the then minister for justice, whether it would be possible for Philip Sheedy to get day release. The Taoiseachâs inquiry was recorded in a written note by his secretary simply as âJustice - whatâs the story?â
And that was the question that was never satisfactorily answered. The Taoiseach assured us all that it was ânonsense to suggest that the Government showed any special sympathy to Mr Sheedy . . . I applied no political pressure to get Mr Sheedy early releaseâ.
That may well be true, and there is no evidence to the contrary. What there was, however, was an extraordinary set of interventions at the highest level to have a criminal released from prison, and a very peculiar reluctance on Bertie Ahernâs part to disclose the fact that he had made representations on Philip Sheedyâs behalf.
When the controversy broke, and he was reminded of his actions by his private secretary, he told the cabinet and undertook to reveal the information to the Dil. But he didnât do so and the information was revealed instead by the Sunday Tribune.
It is interesting, in hindsight, to recall Bertie Ahernâs excuse for his reluctance to reveal his role in the affair. It arose, he said, from a âlegitimate concern not to feed conspiracy theories, or by juxtaposing irrelevant information to imply or signal the probability of some hidden connectionâ.
And this, surely, is precisely the reason why he should never have taken money from private individuals like Joe Burke in the first place. The probability of some hidden connection is always on the minds of Irish people, partly because we know from bitter experience that they may exist and partly because it is a small country with a love of gossip.
When money is changing hands, conspiracy theories become all too credible, even when theyâre dead wrong. A coincidence of the kind that happened, on the Taoiseachâs account, in the Sheedy case, starts to smell very fishy.
You canât run a country on those assumptions and this one shouldnât be run by someone who has done so much to feed them.
2008 The Irish Times
