Philip Sheedy Affair

The Philip Sheedy affair was an Irish political and judicial controversy which resulted in the resignation of both a Supreme Court and High Court judge.

Philip Sheedy, an architect, was involved in a road traffic accident in March 1996 at the Glenview Roundabout, Tallaght Bypass, County Dublin which resulted in the death of Anne Ryan. It transpired that Sheedy, who was driving a high performance sports car that he had purchased the previous day, was intoxicated. Sheedy plead guilty to causing death by dangerous driving before His Honour Judge Cyril Kelly (as he was then) in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in October 1997 and also admitted to driving with excess alcohol. On the day of sentencing Judge Joseph Mathews was asked by Judge Kelly to step-in and sentence Sheedy. Judge Matthews imposed a four-year sentence on Sheedy with leave to apply for a review of the sentence after two years (20 October 1999), as well as banning him from driving for twelve years. On 6 November 1997 Judge Mathews granted an application on Sheedy's behalf to vacate the order which set 20 October 1999 as the review date of Sheedy's sentence.

Sheedy, after initially being incarcerated in Mountjoy Prison, was moved to Shelton Abbey, an open prison, after six months' imprisonment. There he was visited by his friend Joe Burke, a former Fianna Fáil councillor and a member of the so-called "Drumcondra Mafia", who had loaned the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern 3,500 Irish pounds as part of the "dig outs" Ahern received around the time of his marriage break-up. Burke, who worked as a building contractor, had employed Sheedy as an architectural advisor to his company J&H Burke and Son.

In July 1998 the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern contacted then minister for justice John O'Donoghue to ask him whether it would be possible for Philip Sheedy to get day release. Initially, Ahern had vehemently denied that he concealed his representations to the Department of Justice on behalf of Philip Sheedy.

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