There was a general sense of outrage in Portarlington yesterday when it emerged that the garda who had killed one of the town's best-liked sons in a road traffic accident is to appeal the severity of the sentence.
The townspeople had been absorbing the outcome of the court case on Tuesday when Garda Martin Shankey-Smith, from Dunboyne, Co Meath, had been sentenced to six months for driving, when he had excess alcohol in his blood, the car which killed Alan Jones on December 27th last.
"He should shut up and take what is coming to him," was the reaction of Mr Jones's mother Eileen, when she heard about the appeal. Her sentiments were echoed in the town.
There was little talk of anything other than the case under the rain-laden skies in Portarlington. But there was little or no hostility towards the local gardai.
People seemed to accept Mrs Jones's verdict on that too. She believes that "faceless people" in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions are to blame for what happened.
"The local gardai did their best for us. They tried their best but it was the faceless men in the DPP's office who decided what the fate should be over the death of a brilliant young man," said Mr Jones's mother.
She had nothing but praise for Judge Mary Martin for the way she had handled the case, saying: "She is full of good old basic common sense but she did not have the power."
She said that it was pressure from her family which had resulted in an additional charge of driving without due care and attention.
"We were outraged when we found out that there were only going to be limited charges. We got our solicitor, Elizabeth Bruton, to write to the DPP to protest and it was only after that the additional careless driving charge was added on," she said.
Mrs Jones, who lives with her husband and four other children at Garryhinch near Portarlington, said she would try to oppose any attempt by Shankey-Smith to have his sentence reduced.
"If he suffered as much as we were told by his legal team in court yesterday, why is he kicking against what he got?" she asked.
"He never said sorry. He never even said sorry to us through his solicitor. When I heard that he had a mobile phone in his car which could have been used to summon help, it made it even worse for us.
"I will be attending the appeal, but I will not be looking at that man. I did not look at his face on Tuesday, just the back of his head. I don't want to see his face."
She said the family would be getting together to see if they could have any input into the appeal, and she would be in touch with her solicitor about it.
In the town, people were saying how difficult the tragedy had been for the Jones family because of their strong links with the Garda down the years.
Mrs Jones is very proud that her father, Joe Shaw, was one of the first gardai in the State, and Mr Jones's girlfriend, Cria Madigan, was the daughter of a Special Branch member who died only last year.
"I was born in a barracks and I am very proud of that. My father was in the Guard of Honour at Michael Collins's funeral, but then he was proud of his uniform," she said.
The locals spoke, too, of the nightly visits by Mrs Jones and her family to the local cemetery, where two candles are lit on Mr Jones's grave.
It is clear that his memory will live on in the town where he was so popular, where the candles burn nightly on his grave and flowers still adorn the roadside at Lea, near the rugby clubhouse where he spent his last night alive.