There was a shining example in Buncrana this week of what true friendship can mean - it can mean forgiving someone when nobody would blame you for hoping they rot in jail.

Friends are the people who bail you out when you can’t, or won’t, go to your family for support. Friends share the highs and lows and often wind up in trouble together. We love them, yet they can infuriate and annoy us better than anyone else. Where would we be without them?

As John Lennon remarked, people ‘get by’ with a little help from their friends.

If you are short a tenner for a few pints on a Friday night - a friend will usually sub you.

If you have been dumped on Valentine’s Day - a friend will usually tolerate your incessant and high pitched whining for a while at least (and then sub you a tenner so you can drown your sorrows with someone else and torture them instead).

If you find yourself in front of a judge, and facing possible jail time, for punching and kicking one of your friends in the head outside a nigthclub - a friend (who also happens to be the victim) will, on your behalf, appeal to the judge for leniency. Aye, right!

If any “buddy” of mine decided to show his affection by booting me in the head whilst I’m lying flat on my back, that friendship would pretty much be over there and then. Emphatically.

But that was the remarkable chain of events when Martin Quinn did what he could to help out his friend. It was one of the most refreshing stories I have heard in ages.

In case you missed it, here’s the story so far:

Buncrana court was told that Cathal Doherty, 24, became abusive towards a bouncer outside a nightclub when his friend, Martin Quinn, intervened.

So far, so typical of any weekend in any town. A fight then broke out and Doherty ended up kicking Quinn in the head as he was lying on the ground. Charming.

Quinn passed out and awoke with a sore neck and hip. He had suffered compression of a vertebrae resulting from the kick and had to attend nine months of physiotheraphy. Thankfully, he made a full recovery.

I’d imagine that nine months of physiotherapy would be a long and frustrating time in which grudges could easily take root. It is a time spent trying to retrain your body to carry out actions and movements you had taken for granted, and painlessly, up until the trauma was inflicted.

After detailing evidence of his injuries, Quinn asked the Judge to be as lenient as possible when sentencing Doherty. He said: “He’s come to my house with his Mum and apologised, I’m sure that he won’t do it again.

“We went to the same school and played football together. I wouldn’t like to see him wasted. I would like to ask for the minimum sentence possible.