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22 April 1999 Edition

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Establishment covers its tracks

How many of us in our daily workplaces cut corners, do friends favours, and generally bend the rules. If most of us think long enough about it, we are probably all guilty of helping friends in beating the system.

There are some who see the actions of Justices O'Flaherty and Kelly in this light. They are wrong. The two judges were not helping someone jump a queue, get a cheap holiday, avoid paying VAT or organising some nixer. Anne Ryan was killed by a drunk Philip Sheedy speeding in his car. Yes, Sheedy might have felt remorse after the fact. Yes, he might have offered to pay compensation and yes, he might have found his jail term difficult to complete. These factors were not reasons suspend a prison sentence.

What the actions of the two judges show is the how the political establishment works. How many of us unhappy with how the legal system has dealt with us would be able to move in the right social circles, where Supreme Court judges can be prevailed upon to consider our plight?

What was going through the minds of O'Flaherty and Kelly when they intervened in the Sheedy case? This was not a case of disappearing parking tickets; it was a case where one individual's actions had led to another person losing their life.

Now the two judges have taken what many might conceive to be the honourable a course of action and resigned. This might be the end of the affair for them, but many other issues need to be tackled.

We need to look at how judgements are made. How can two justices give completely different decisions on the same case? Why did the Minister for Justice not react when Anne Ryan's family contacted his office? Why is the appointment of a judge the spoils of political office? Should there not be another more transparent way of appointing judges?

The legal system and the political establishment it depends on do not come out of the Sheedy affair well. Forcing the two judges to resign seemed to be the sole priority of the Dublin government. They must think again. They have not resolved the Sheedy case but have merely dabbled with a far greater set of problems.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland