Mystery surrounds why Tom Dooley was murdered in Kerry graveyard by six of his relatives

Liam Heylin reported on every day of the 34-day trial at the Central Criminal Court where six men slaughtered one man attending a funeral in Tralee and have all now been convicted of murder. Here, he casts an eye over what went on in the graveyard that day in Kerry, the resulting court case and what on earth gave rise to such brutality

Nobody disputes that Thomas Dooley did not raise a hand to anyone on October 5, 2022, and he did not behave in any kind of provocative way but why did this brutal, fatal attack happen? Picture via Facebook

The medieval violence meted out on a father-of-seven attending a funeral at a cemetery in Tralee was the central image from this murder trial but another altogether different picture is possibly even more disturbing.

The image comes from moments before the murder of Tom Dooley when he ambled across the forecourt of Kelleher’s garage from the Mace store to Rath cemetery. He was a big man. We see him as he walks along with a couple of his children. He stops to tie his shoelace.