Mick Clifford: Sophie Toscan du Plantier case still haunts Ireland's legal and political system

A private prosecution bid shows how the Sophie case still fuels conflict between law and perception

Sophie Toscan du Plantier's body was found outside her holiday home in Schull in December 1996.

Nearly 30 years after the brutal murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, the fall-out continues apace. 

In June, a new docudrama made by Jim Sheridan about the case premiered at the Tribeca film festival in New York. It portrays what a trial of Ian Bailey, the chief suspect in the murder, would have looked like.