Philip Sheedy pleaded guilty on two counts - driving dangerously causing the death of Mrs Anne Ryan, and drunken driving - before Judge Cyril Kelly in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on June 11th, 1997. The case was adjourned for sentence until October 20th, 1997. He was out on continuing bail.
He was working in the architects' department of Dublin County Council. His father, also named Philip Sheedy, was a senior supervisor with FAS in Blanchardstown, where he still works. He is not speaking to the media at this time.
The first known contact between the Sheedy family and the political/judicial establishment came about entirely fortuitously.
Jim Tunney, a former Fianna Fail TD for Dublin North West, retired from the Dail in the June 1997 general election. He had more time to play golf and his wife, Kathleen, was free to play more bridge.
Kathleen came home one evening and told Jim she had met a woman called Anna Sheedy and that she was terribly distraught. Her son, Philip Sheedy, was in a car accident and a woman was killed. Since they were a respectable family, never in any trouble before, Jim suggested that the Sheedys should go to a local TD to get a character reference. It wouldn't do any harm, he said.
The Sheedys were shy about asking anybody, didn't seem to be party political, didn't personally know any of the Dublin West TDs, Joe Higgins, Austin Currie, Brian Lenihan or Liam Lawlor. But Anna had heard of Ann Lenihan, Brian Lenihan snr's widow, because she also played bridge. Jim Tunney arranged for the Sheedys to meet the new Fianna Fail TD, Brian Lenihan jnr. He had no further contact with the matter.
At that stage, in October 1997, while Philip Sheedy was on bail awaiting sentence, it is understood that the Sheedys made an offer to the Ryans' solicitor that they would mortgage their house to set up a £50,000 trust fund for the motherless children.
It was by such a circuitous arrangement that Philip Sheedy, senior and junior, met Brian Lenihan TD, on or about October 14th, 1997. The family lived in the Coolmine area, in the Dublin West constituency. Mr Lenihan knew the father "to see". He didn't know the son at all.
The Sheedys were concerned at that meeting in the Dail that Philip wouldn't, and shouldn't, go to jail. Mr Lenihan interviewed Philip Sheedy jnr at length. He was a finely-tailored fellow from a normal, decent family.
He satisfied himself that he could write a character reference for Philip Sheedy. Headed "To Whom It May Concern", it stated on Dail Eireann notepaper: "I do realise that Mr Sheedy faces very serious charges arising out of an incident which has caused great tragedy to others.
"I am bound to say that Mr Sheedy has been known to me in my work as a Public Representative for the Dublin West constituency. That is not to say that he has assisted me in any way during an election contest. However, he does come from a very good family. He is in his occupation an architect. He is a respected member of the local community in Coolmine. I know him to be of good character.
"A custodial sentence in this case would lead to the destruction of his career as an architect.
"This reference has been written in my capacity as a Dail Deputy for the Dublin West constituency," the letter, dated October 14th, 1977, said.
In all of the documentation produced in the two reports into the Sheedy affair, there is no record of this character reference being used in court.
The Sheedy case returned to court, before Judge Joseph Mathews, on October 20th, 1997. Sheedy was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. The sentence was to be reviewed after two years, on October 20th this year.
Philip Sheedy was in jail. He was first sent to the training unit in Mountjoy before being transferred to the open prison in Shelton Abbey, outside Arklow. It was more than a year later, November 12th, 1998, before he was released in the most extraordinary set of circumstances, leading to the resignation of two senior judges and the county registrar.
The senior judge in the Supreme Court, former Mr Justice O'Flaherty, casually encountered "a son of family friends and neighbours", Mr Ken Anderson, accompanied by Philip Sheedy's sister, "some time late last year, probably October". This encounter was "entirely by chance". He was out walking his dog.
They gave Mr Justice O'Flaherty an outline of the Sheedy case. He suggested that it seemed somewhat similar to a case at which he had presided in the Court of Criminal Appeal: The People (DPP) v. McDonald.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty subsequently summoned the county registrar, Mr Michael Quinlan, to his chambers. He mentioned the Sheedy case to him and suggested to Mr Quinlan that it might be possible to have it relisted in the Circuit Court. Some time later, having contacted Sheedy's solicitor, Mr Michael Staines, Mr Quinlan was in a position to tell Mr Justice O'Flaherty that the case was being relisted.
These developments, initiated in late October 1998, led the Chief Justice to conclude in his report: "I am satisfied, therefore that, had Mr Justice O`Flaherty not spoken to the county registrar, he, the county registrar, would not have telephoned the accused's solicitor and opened the possibility of the case being relisted, in the Circuit Court, before a judge."
The former Fianna Fail councillor Mr Joe Burke visited Philip Sheedy in Shelton Abbey on October 14th, 1998. The meeting lasted an hour. Mr Burke, who has been a close friend of the Taoiseach's for many years, was the only politician to visit Philip Sheedy during his time in prison.
Mr Burke refused to give any information about the meeting to The Irish Times yesterday. "I made a comment to a journalist. It was blown out of all proportion. That's it. Goodbye," he said.
Before the Chief Justice's report, however, Mr Burke told the Star that he just happened to be in Arklow at the time when he dropped in to see Philip Sheedy. "It was a chance call," he stated.
"I called once. He was having a difficult time. He was talking about how he was suicidal . . . talking about the legalities," he added. Mr Burke, a Dublin builder, worked with Philip Sheedy on an apartment block in Marlborough Street two years ago.
The balance of Philip Sheedy's sentence - three out of the four years - was suspended by Mr Justice Kelly, then a judge of the Circuit Court, at a hearing lasting only minutes on November 12th, 1998. The review of the case, according to the Chief Justice, was not conducted in a manner "befitting a judge".
Contesting Judge Mathews's statement about the Sheedy affair, Mr Justice Kelly stated: "There was no reason for me to say I was too close to the case as I did not know the defendant, nor was I aware of my knowing anyone connected with him."