Doneraile murder trial: Cork postman's partner wept as 17-year-old found guilty of his murder
Barry Daly with his partner Katie O’Reilly and their children.
The Doneraile murder trial, which has been going on throughout the summer, ended on Thursday with a verdict of guilty in the case against the third person — a 17-year-old.
The verdict of the seven women and five men of the jury was unanimous after seven hours and 29 minutes of deliberations at the Central Criminal Court, which has been sitting in Cork for this trial since July 16.
He had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.
This trial commenced more or less immediately after the first trial, which took place before another jury, starting on June 3. In that trial, 20-year-old Alex Deady, of Glenview, Convent Road, Doneraile, County Cork, was convicted of murdering Barry Daly in the front garden of his home at Rockview Terrace in Doneraile.
And a 16-year-old was convicted of manslaughter, following his own admission to that.
The 17-year-old, who admitted manslaughter but denied murder, was part of that first trial but the jury was unable to reach a verdict against him.
This second jury has reached a unanimous verdict that he is guilty of murder.
One of the reasons for the urgency in having a second trial for the 17-year-old is his age. He will turn 18 before the end of the year and that will have implications for the sentence he serves, being significantly reduced for a juvenile. In the eyes of the law, he is a child until he reaches the age of 18.
At various stages in both of these trials, the jurors were told it was not their role to consider the implications of their verdicts in terms of the sentences that would follow.
The three — now convicted parties — had their sentencing adjourned until Friday. The Daly family will have an opportunity, tomorrow or possibly on a later date, to describe the impact that the killing of Barry Daly has had on their lives.
Even before the verdict was delivered, Barry Daly’s partner, Katie O’Reilly, was in tears in court and continued to weep as the guilty verdict was delivered. The teenager did not react in any visible manner.
During the trial, Ms O’Reilly said Barry would have a few drinks at home, but socialising was a bit of a rarity, and he used to go out about once a month. She said he was in mighty form at the time as he was on a week’s holidays and won €600 on the Lotto...
He was going to knock on the bedroom window when he arrived home but that was not the sound she heard at about 2am last October 12, 2025. She heard a lot of shouting. It was more than one person, male voices. She heard: ‘I am going to kill you’ in an angry voice, and Barry saying, ‘Stop’.
She said to herself, ‘I hope to God that is not Barry.’ She said: "I could hear the bangs like someone getting whacked of something. They were horrible full force bangs of someone."
She ran out to Barry. There was blood everywhere. She said: "I lay down by him. I knew he was dead. I checked for a pulse. I lay down beside him. I kept begging him to come back. I was lying beside Barry for maybe two minutes.”
Assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster testified: “The body was lying on the back with a large amount of blood-staining present in the face and pooling of blood under the head.”
Nearby in the garden, the pathologist saw the head of a wedge-type golf club broken about 1ft up the shaft.
“There was very severe facial trauma and it would have caused an awful lot of bleeding into the mouth, aspirated into the lungs — you cannot breathe and that ultimately leads to death.”
Dr Bolster found there were no offensive injuries on the deceased, such as skinned knuckles, and no defensive injuries, such as marks or damage to the forearms.
A lot of the trial consisted of events before the ultimate fatal event in the front garden. The events down on Main Street, Doneraile, took a lot of time and a lot of witnesses.
But the main import of the evidence was that during an altercation at closing time, Barry Daly hit Alex Deady’s girlfriend, Rachel O’Kelly, in the mouth. She said it was deliberate, Barry Daly said it was accidental, and different witnesses said different things about whether it was deliberate or accidental.
Prosecution senior counsel Lorcan Staines said what happened in town did not matter. There was further evidence of the three accused having golf clubs as they made their way to Barry Daly’s home and the unsuccessful efforts of some people to stop them.
The 17-year-old defendant said: “We were going up, expecting a fight, to be honest. No intention to kill… There was no plan.”
Alice Fawsitt, senior counsel for the teenager, said in effect his evidence across more than 11 hours of Garda interviews could essentially be summarised as follows: “I went and got golf clubs. I went with [Alex] to the house. Barry Daly came out from behind a pillar, he swung at me, I ducked, Alex hit him.”
Alex Deady described things in similar terms when he was interviewed by gardaí. Asked where he made contact with the deceased, Alex Deady, indicated to the left side of his head. He said: “I had no intention of killing him.”
It was put to him: “You struck him with a golf club.” He replied: “He was stumbling — one, two steps and he went down. He was still saying f***. Oh man, it wasn’t like he was out on the ground. He was still saying f*** you, he was moving. We left. We just ran. I got such a fright. I don’t even know, oh man, it was all just a blur.”
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