The complexion of the Sheedy case has been changed utterly by the revelation that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, made personal representations to the Department of Justice to secure regular day release for him last July. What looked like a series of extraordinary Fianna Fail coincidences now fits into a sequence of related events.
It all began when Philip Sheedy pleaded guilty on two counts - drunken driving and driving dangerously causing the death of Mrs Anne Ryan - before then Judge Cyril Kelly in the Circuit Criminal Court on June 11th, 1997. The case had first been listed six months earlier and adjourned from time to time. Judge Kelly fixed October 20th, 1997 as the date for sentence.
Philip Sheedy was out on continuing bail when the first link between the Sheedy family and the political/judicial establishment became known. It happened in a professional capacity. Sheedy was referred by his solicitor to Senator Don Lydon (FF) who prepared two psychology reports for him, dated December 12th, 1996 and April 29th, 1997.
The second political contact appeared to come about entirely fortuitously. Kathleen Tunney, wife of the retired Fianna Fail TD for Dublin North West, Jim Tunney, played bridge with Anna Sheedy, mother of Philip Sheedy.
She heard about the Sheedy side of the story from her. Jim suggested the Sheedys go to a local TD to get a character reference and arranged for them to meet the new Fianna Fail TD for Dublin West, Brian Lenihan.
The Sheedys, father and son, met Mr Lenihan by arrangement in the Dail bar when they expressed their concern that he should not go to jail. After an hour's interview, Mr Lenihan wrote a cautious character reference for Philip Sheedy on October 14th, 1997, about a week before he was due to be sentenced.
Judge Kelly transferred the Sheedy case to Judge Joseph Mathews on October 20th, 1997. The conversations which took place between the two judges are disputed. Judge Mathews sentenced Sheedy to four years' imprisonment with a review date for October 20th, 1999. Philip Sheedy was in jail.
It is very relevant here, in the wake of the Taoiseach's entry into the controversy, that 16 days later, on November 6th, 1997, Sean Moylan SC, for Sheedy, applied to Judge Mathews to vacate the review date. "He indicated that this was his client's wish," Judge Mathews said in his statement for the Chief Justice's inquiry.
"Unusual though this appeared to me, I did not want to impede senior counsel for the defence in any way in matters which might be in ease of his client in matters of temporary release in due course which might not apply if a review date stood."
Philip Sheedy was first sent to the Mountjoy training unit before being transferred to Shelton Abbey, outside Arklow.
The next political intervention was made by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, on foot of, he believes, a letter from Mr Sheedy snr. He asked his private secretary, then Mr George Shaw, to inquire from the Minister for Justice's private secretary, Mr Pat Murray, about the possibility of regular day release for Philip Sheedy. That happened on July 9th, 1998.
But when Department of Justice officials checked the prison file, they believed the review date was still in place for October 20th, 1999. The question of day release did not apply. Interestingly, however, the other person who did not know the review date had been vacated was Judge Cyril Kelly. The order which Judge Kelly subsequently made on November 12th, 1998, to suspend Philip Sheedy's sentence stated: "And it was further ordered that the review date fixed for the 20th October 1999 be vacated".
The former Fianna Fail councillor Mr Joe Burke, a long-standing friend of the Taoiseach, visited Sheedy in Shelton Abbey on October 14th, 1998. "It was a chance call," he said. "He was having a difficult time. He was talking about how he was suicidal . . . talking about the legal(ities)". Mr Burke, a Dublin builder, wanted to have Sheedy as a witness in a legal action in the High Court on October 21st, 1998.
With the political remedies exhausted, the senior judge in the Supreme Court, Mr Justice O'Flaherty, casually encountered "a son of family friends and neighbours", Mr Ken Anderson, accompanied by Philip Sheedy's sister, "probably" last October.
This encounter precipitated Mr Justice O'Flaherty's intervention with the Dublin County Registrar, Mr Michael Quinlan, and the relisting of the case before Judge Kelly on November 12th, 1998. Philip Sheedy was freed.
What initially seemed like coincidences now looks like an orchestrated campaign by the Sheedy family to have Philip Sheedy released. It raises very serious questions for the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and the Minister for Justice which go the heart of Government credibility.
The Taoiseach knew from July 9th, 1998 that he had intervened in the case. He cannot recollect it. He knew that the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, was phoned from Berlin by the Attorney General, Mr Byrne, on February 10th last suggesting the possibility that there had been "some form of impropriety" in the Sheedy case. He cannot recollect it.
Mr Ahern knew Mr O'Donoghue told the Dail on April 1st that the Chief Justice had been asked to initiate an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the Sheedy release last November. It was only around that time when a Department of Justice official stumbled across the Taoiseach's representation in the file that Mr Ahern's action became known.
The official contacted the Taoiseach's private office about it.
It seemed the Taoiseach's intervention would remain secret if it had not been put on a file.
It was many days later, on April 14th, that the Taoiseach informed the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, he had made representations about Sheedy's temporary release. The Chief Justice's report was received by the Government that afternoon and presented to the Cabinet meeting on April 16th.
The Tanaiste asked the Taoiseach to make his intervention known to the Dail. He didn't. She asked him again last Tuesday. He still didn't. Her silence on a matter so fundamental to the credibility of the Coalition has damaged her also.