Sympathy? Redemption? What now for Jackson and Olding?

Should these two men, found not guilty by a jury, be consigned to the fringes of society, unable to get work for the rest of their lives asks Alison O’Connor

Sympathy for Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding? Now there’s a novel thought. However, it was one which was put in my head last weekend as I listened to a speech at the Burren Law School, held over the bank holiday weekend.

The notion was first floated at a session on Saturday afternoon during a questions-and-answers session when well-known journalist and commentator Eamonn Mallie raised the issue of how the public appears to have refused to accept the verdict in the trial; and how, despite that verdict, rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding cannot now get jobs.