A case apparently informally cited by Mr Justice Hugh O'Flaherty as a precedent in the Sheedy case also involved a man driving too fast with drink in his system.
The judgment was given in the Court of Criminal Appeal by Mr Justice O'Flaherty himself on July 29th last, when he suspended the last 19 months of a two-year sentence for dangerous driving causing death.
Mr Paul McDonald had pleaded guilty to this offence, arising from an accident on December 15th 1996. He was 20 when the accident happened, and had only two months' driving experience. He was sentenced by Portlaoise Circuit Criminal Court on March 3rd 1998 and his licence was suspended for five years.
The night before the accident he had been at a function at which he had been drinking. He, and the two young men with him in the car, decided to try to sleep this off in the car rather than drive. However, when he woke up the next morning and decided to drive he was still well over the legal limit. While attempting to get one of his companions, Mr Sean O'Sullivan, to work, the car went out of control and Mr O'Sullivan was killed. His parents wrote to the court stressing that they bore no ill-feeling against Mr McDonald.
"Is it right that this man should be sentenced to two years' imprisonment?" asked Mr Justice O'Flaherty. "We think that it is a rather hard sentence in all the circumstances. There was no element of premeditation. There was no evidence of bravado. He was simply inexperienced on the two fronts: on how to handle a car and how to handle drink.
"We have been assured by the applicant's counsel that he has suffered great remorse . . .
"In all the circumstances we think he should be given a chance and while we will leave the sentence stand we will suspend the balance as from today and hope that he will now be able to rebuild his life and make himself a useful member of the community. That is the best way he can honour the memory of Sean O'Sullivan."