Katie immediately liked Justice Connolly’s voice. It was rich and soothing, halfway between a rumble and a purr, but it also had a hint of amusement behind it, as if he didn’t take himself too seriously.

She sat down, and Stephen Herlihy said, ‘Justice Connolly has come down to Cork to support Justice O’Rafferty for the next two months or so on serious cases. He’ll be kicking off with the sentencing hearing for Donal Hagerty.’

‘Legally, Justice O’Rafferty could hand down the sentence on her own,’ said Justice Connolly. ‘But we wanted to show the public and the criminal fraternity that the death of Justice Quinn has done nothing to weaken or deter the judiciary. You may take one of us down, but there’ll always be another to step up in their place.’

He picked up a thick manila folder from Stephen Herlihy’s desk. ‘I’ve studied the court reports on Donal Hagerty, and discussed them in detail with Justice O’Rafferty, and we’re in total agreement about the length of the prison term that we intend to impose.’

‘He’ll be sentenced on Monday morning,’ said Stephen Herlihy. ‘Then on Tuesday we have the Moody case listed, all things being equal.’

Katie could understand why they wanted two judges for the Moody case. Declan Moody and two of his brothers were accused of supplying semi-automatic rifles and pistols to anyone who wanted to buy them, including a group of Republican activists who called themselves the True IRA and a gang of Nigerian pimps known as the Dudu.

‘I’ve just this minute come back from an interview with Donal Hagerty up at Rathmore Road,’ she told Justice Connolly.

‘Oh yes? And was he co-operative?’

‘Not about shooting Michael Riordan. I’m still convinced that he was paid to kill Michael Riordan by Thomas O’Flynn. In fact I’m even more convinced now than I ever was, but you’d have to waterboard him or pull out his fingernails with red-hot pliers to get him to admit it. Sure like, he was friendly with the O’Flynns, enough to have a scoop with them if they ever met up in a bar. But he wasn’t a paid-up member of their gang, and he had no personal beef against Michael Riordan, no matter what he said in court.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Justice Connolly. ‘That cock-and-bull story about Michael Riordan having threatened to kill him because he’d overheard the Riordans planning some robbery and he’d tipped off the law.’