Jury to continue deliberations for a sixth day in Doneraile murder trial

Barry Daly was found dead in Doneraile on October 12, 2025.

Jury deliberations will go into their sixth day on Wednesday in the Doneraile murder trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.

The juror who was absent on July 6, returned on July 7 and re-joined the other jurors for further deliberations throughout the day.

They asked a question which was clarified for them by Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford. They asked: “Are we allowed to consider age and maturity of the accused? We understand we don’t have to consider consequences of sentencing.” 

The judge answered in these terms: “Your job is to assess the evidence, decide his intention based on all the evidence. He is entitled to be judged by the state of his or her own mind. Consider it from (17-year-old’s) own mind. Consider it from his perspective, from the point of view of his age and maturity. It is a subjective test.” 

For the past week the trial has been going ahead before a jury of 11 as one woman was discharged because she was unable to continue. By agreement of all parties, the trial continued in front of the jury of five men and six women.

The third person who was put on trial charged with murdering 44-year-old postman Barry Daly in his front garden in Doneraile last October remains before the court and the jury are trying to decide if he is guilty of manslaughter or murder.

The 17-year-old stood in the Central Criminal Court in Cork on June 3 and was arraigned on the charge of murdering Mr Daly at Rockview Terrace in Doneraile on October 12, 2025. He replied that was not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. The issue the jury have to decide is between murder and manslaughter.

Co-accused 20-year-old Alex Deady of Glenview, Convent Road, Doneraile, County Cork, also pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. On Friday, July 3, the jury found him guilty of murder.

The 16-year-old co-accused who was put on trial on June 3 initially pleaded not guilty to murder. Following legal discussions in the absence of the jury this 16-year-old was re-arraigned on June 24 and he entered a plea of guilty for the first time, in the following terms, “not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter,” and this plea to manslaughter was acceptable to the DPP in his case.