On Friday 15 March 1996, as Anne & John Ryan headed home with their children from swimming in their local pool in Tallaght, little did they know they would be propelled into the centre of one of the biggest scandals in recent years. ‘Here was the classic case of a working class family from Tallaght suffering an appalling tragedy of a woman knocked down by a guy… he gets a pretty light sentence and then he’s released. Here was a really big local scandal…even the participants involved in it were quite amazed that this had come to pass.’ Barry O’Kelly The Ryans were an ordinary family but that night they were to be the victims of a young Dublin architect Philip Sheedy who’d just bought a new sports car the previous day and that Friday night, got into his new car, drunk. Witnesses to the accident at the Glenview roundabout that night described Sheedy’s speeding dark Ford Puma sports car – taking off like a rocket into the air for 60ft before landing on top of the the Ryan’s family car at the other side of the roundabout. Anne Ryan, who was driving, was killed – John and the children were badly injured. Sheedy escaped with minor injuries and was arrested & charged with dangerous driving causing death. The following year in June 1997 the case came before the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Sheedy pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison with a review after two years. That should have been the end of the matter. With Sheedy in jail, John Ryan and the family could begin to rebuild their lives. However, in Feb 1999, Philip Sheedy was sighted in Tallaght. The circumstances of his release were to cause a scandal that shook the legal and political establishment to the core. It was to lead directly to the resignation of a High Court Judge (Cyril Kelly ) & Supreme Court Judge (Hugh O’Flaherty) as well as the then Dublin Country registrar. But questions were also raised about political connections and Taoiseach Ber