Olivia Kelleher
A sixth man has been found guilty of the murder of Kerry father of seven, Thomas Dooley, who was set upon in a “violent and savage attack” as he attended a funeral at a graveyard in Tralee in October 2022.
Daniel Dooley (42) of An Carraigin, Connolly Park in Tralee was found guilty of the murder of his cousin after close to 21 hours of deliberations by the jury of ten men and two women. The decision was not unanimous and involved a majority verdict of eleven to one.
Prosecution barristers claimed during the trial that Mr Dooley died in an “honour killing” and that the men used “medieval violence” to “butcher” the victim.
However, Brian McInerney, SC, for Daniel Dooley had stated that his client was not forensically linked to the evidence of the case. He said that the widow of the deceased, Siobhan Dooley, had named someone in her statement who could not have been in the graveyard that day.
She then testified that she meant Daniel, as the two men are “an awful lot alike.”
Mrs Dooley said that she just got confused about the names.
The convictions of all six men for the murder of Killarney native Thomas Dooley come after a month-long trial which took place at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork.
Thomas Dooley was set upon by the group at New Rath Cemetery in Rathass in Tralee on October 5th, 2022. He was pronounced dead at University Hospital Kerry.
Five men will be sentenced on Tuesday. However, the judge ruled that the juvenile will be sentenced on October 29th next.
Daniel Dooley protested his innocence when the guilty verdict was returned.
Victim impact statements will be prepared in the interim.
During the course of the lengthy trial Dean Kelly, SC for the State, said that “honour” had been offended when a relationship between one of the late Mr Dooley’s daughters and one of the accused men had “broken down.”
Mr Kelly said that Mr Dooley was set upon and attacked by a group of males armed with bladed weapons.
Among the convicted men is Patrick Dooley of Arbutus Grove in Killarney, who was a brother of the victim. He was found guilty of the murder of his older brother on July 19th last. Prosecuting barristers called his act a “biblical atrocity.”
He had claimed that he saw men jump on his brother in the graveyard and had tried to help him to no avail.
However, Siobhan Dooley, the widow of the late Mr Dooley, said that she saw her brother-in-law Patrick grin and produce a knife before her husband was set upon.
She said that the attack on her husband was “like something you would see in a movie.” The men were hitting him with weapons and there was “blood everywhere”.
Meanwhile, Michael Dooley of the Halting site, Carrigrohane Road in Cork was found guilty of the murder on Tuesday of this week. He was a cousin of the deceased.
Mr Dooley strongly protested his innocence when he was convicted and said that he was an “innocent man.” His senior counsel Ray Boland had claimed that his client went to the funeral to pay his respects to the family of the deceased woman, Bridget O’Brien. Mr Boland said that the 29-year-old had “no hand or part in the crime.”
Father and son Thomas Dooley Snr (43) and Thomas Dooley Jnr (21) both of the Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road in Cork were found guilty of the murder on July 18th last after the jury deliberated for around eight hours.
The juvenile couldn’t be named because of his age. Mr Thomas Dooley Jnr was also found guilty of assault causing harm to Siobhan Dooley.
Thomas Dooley Snr and Thomas Dooley Jnr are respectively a brother-in-law and a second cousin of the deceased man.
Thomas Dooley Snr was also a first cousin of the dead man. Five of the convictions involved unanimous verdicts.
Siobhan Dooley had told the trial that she and her husband and their four youngest children had travelled from their home in Killarney to attend the funeral of their friend Bridget O’Brien in Tralee, where her husband was attacked by a group of six armed men.
She said that Michael and Daniel Dooley were “actually grinning” during the attack She stated that her husband’s brother in law Thomas Dooley Snr was carrying two weapons as he approached her husband.
“One was shiny and looked to be new, the other had a bit of rust on it — one had a round top, the other was a big chunk of a yoke — I had never seen weapons like them before. I said to my husband ‘run’ and he turned to me and said ‘Run?’ Run for what — I had nothing to run for.”
She said that Thomas Dooley Jnr was standing behind one of her sons and was about to swing a weapon at him, but she pushed her son out of the way, and he ended up hitting her and cutting her under the arm.
“I knew they were going to do harm when I saw the weapons. I tried to squeeze in between them and my husband, but there was no hope — all I could do was start scraping Tom’s (Thomas Dooley Snr’s) face and eyes with my nails to get him away from my husband.”
Mrs Dooley said that she ran out of the cemetery and saw a garda car in a garage across the road. She ran to a garda and started roaring and shouting that her husband was being killed by the men.
Mrs Dooley sustained serious injuries in the incident. The trial heard that she suffered a foot long wound to her shoulder which required 45 stitches and 30 staples. She was informed of the death of her husband Thomas whilst she was undergoing hospital treatment.
The late Thomas Dooley was laid to rest at Clonminch Cemetery in his wife's native Tullamore, Co Offaly on October 13th, 2022 following a requiem mass at the Church of Assumption in the town.
The deceased man is survived by his wife, three sons and four daughters. He lived at Hazelwood Drive, Ballyspillane in Killarney.
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