Historic night of celebration ended in death for Doneraile postman

Taking four days to determine that the 20-year-old defendant was guilty of murder, and not manslaughter, the jury in the Doneraile case continues deliberations in relation to the 17-year-old on Monday, writes Liam Heylin

Flowers at the residence on Rockview Terrace, Doneraile, Cork, where the body of postman Barry Daly was discovered on October 12, 2025. Picture: Dan Linehan

A night that began with a locally historic night of sports celebrations in Doneraile ended with the death of postman and father of four Barry Daly.

He was killed when he was struck to the head with a golf club in his own front garden, and one man has now been found guilty of murder.

The jury took four days to determine that Alex Deady, of Glenview, Convent Rd, Doneraile, Cork, was guilty of the murder, and not the manslaughter, of the 44-year-old postman at Rockview Terrace, Doneraile, on October 12, 2025.

The jury is still deliberating in relation to a 17-year-old who cannot be identified as he is a juvenile. The juvenile also faces a charge of murdering Barry Daly outside his home.

Like his co-accused Deady, he pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter at the outset of the trial.

The jury no longer has to consider the case against a third accused.

On June 24, that third defendant, who is 16, entered a plea of guilty for the first time in the following terms: “Not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.” 

This plea to manslaughter was acceptable to the DPP.

So, of the three defendants who went on trial on June 3, the 20-year-old has been convicted of murder and the 16-year-old has been convicted of manslaughter.

The third person, the 17-year-old, is effectively still on trial for murder. The jury will deliberate more on that from Monday morning, July 6.

Pleading guilty to manslaughter but not murder, Deady told interviewing gardaí he went up to fight the deceased and not to kill him.

Father of four Barry Daly was killed when he was struck to the head with a golf club in his own front garden

Deady said he was fuming that the deceased was taunting him about knocking out his girlfriend’s teeth.

He told gardaí who interviewed him the following day that the deceased taunted him that night with the words: “I am after putting your missus’s teeth down her throat.”

Deady said: “I was fuming, man, that my girl got a belt. I was just mad. My missus’s face was swollen.”

A number of witnesses said Mr Daly’s striking of the young woman’s mouth was accidental, but whether it was deliberate or not was contested throughout the trial.

Deady told gardaí: “As we [Deady and a 17-year-old] got to the garden, he [Barry Daly] jumped out of the ditch. I could see him, I could hear him, still taunting me: ‘I knocked your missus’s teeth down her throat.’

“He just jumped out of the ditch. I didn’t even see him when I just swung. He kind of fell and hit the ground. I just ran. He was trying to pick himself up. I didn’t go down to do that.”

'No intention to kill'

The 17-year-old defendant also said: “We were going up expecting a fight, to be honest. No intention to kill … There was no plan.”

Alice Fawsitt, the senior counsel for the 17-year-old, said that, in effect, his evidence could essentially be summarised as follows: “I went and got golf clubs. I went with [Deady] to the house. Barry Daly came out from behind a pillar, he swung at me, I ducked, Alex hit him.”

Asked where he made contact with the deceased, 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 ‘fuck’.

The hearse taking Barry Daly to his final resting place. Picture: Noel Sweeney

“Oh man, it wasn’t like he was out on the ground. He was still saying ‘fuck 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.

“I never in my born days think I was after killing him. It wasn’t what I went out to do. I had no intention of doing anything like that…

There is a difference between having a few belts with someone and killing them … I didn’t have any plan, it was like a moment’s notice

“I didn’t want that to happen, it was not in my head for that to happen. I had no intention of doing that to him.”

He was asked by gardaí: “Did anyone else strike Barry with the golf club?” and the 20-year-old replied: “No, just me, it was only once I’m sure.”

From other witnesses who described meeting with Deady later that morning after the incident at Mr Daly’s house, it was put to the 20-year-old: “You told people Barry was KO-ed. You were in the house talking about a hurling match and drinking a can of Heineken when Barry had died.”

Deady replied: “I didn’t know that … I did not mean to kill him. I am so sorry for it … [when he left] he [Mr Daly] was talking, he was talking, saying fuck you, you knacker.”

Damage to jaw

Gardaí put it to him: “The post-mortem said his jaw was totally smashed.”

Deady replied: “He was talking, he was.”

Asked by the gardaí: “Why is he dead and his kids without a father?”

Deady replied: “Because of me. I didn’t want to kill him.”

He was asked: “What do you think would happen if you hit someone in the head with a golf club?”

He replied: “He was only hit once.”

The gardaí said: “The post-mortem said otherwise — more than one strike with a weapon.”

Deady said: “You are trying to put stuff in my head.”

When asked if “anyone else hit Barry Daly”, Deady replied: “No.”

Gardaí said: “You were hellbent on causing serious injury to Barry Daly?”

Deady replied: “No, I was not.”

The prosecution in the Doneraile murder case said it was utterly fanciful for the defence to say the deceased man sustained no more than one single blow from a golf club.

Prosecution senior counsel Lorcan Staines said the 17-year-old might say that he did not intend to cause serious harm.

“Ultimately, we say that on the evidence it cannot have been the case that he did not know what Alex wanted to do,” Mr Staines said.

“The idea that there was only one strike to Barry Daly, and that it only came from Alex, is something we reject.

We do not accept that only one golf club was used

“The idea that there was one strike is fanciful.”

Ms Fawsitt, for the 17-year-old, said the prosecution’s role is to present the facts to the jury and not to look for a guilty verdict, but she said the prosecution had looked for such a verdict in this case.

She said witness Séamus Hunter was in Doneraile that night, tried to get the three to cop on, he called them “fucking knackers”, and the 17-year-old head-butted him, and later pleaded guilty to that assault.

In the context of someone allegedly intending to use golf clubs, Ms Fawsitt said it was important to consider that, even though he had a golf club in each hand at the time he encountered Mr Hunter on the street, he never used the clubs but head-butted him instead.

Tom Creed, defending Deady, said: “It began with an act of violence, it ends with an act of gross violence and tragedy for the Daly family and [for the accused] who are tragically ensnared in this situation.”