OFTEN some of the key pillars of the state - politicians, the Gardaí, the legal profession, the judicial system - come in for sustained criticism. It’s only fair therefore where a satisfactory outcome is forthcoming to a case to give credit to all the work such legal matters involve.

Relentless work by the Gardaí, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Waterford SPCA in one of the more notorious cases of equine cruelty - and one with a very long history of previous convictions behind it - finally resulted in a jail sentence and lifetime horse ban on Kilkenny defendant Simon O’Dwyer Snr this week (see news piece on page 89).