THE widow of the man killed in a cemetery in Tralee told the murder trial yesterday that her family were not speaking to another Dooley family because her daughter refused to marry one of them in 2019, but she would not describe it as a falling out.
The jury also heard the lawyer for the dead man’s brother — who is one of the six accused of murder — state that he was actually trying to protect his brother during an attack by others.
On behalf of Patrick Dooley, defence senior counsel Brendan Grehan asked Siobhán Dooley about the weapon she alleged that Patrick was holding. “It could have been a sword,” she said.
“They were murdering my husband in front of my eyes and my children’s eyes. I couldn’t exactly see what sort of weapon.” Mr Grehan said: “On a number of key details you are either mistaken or telling untruths. Patrick was there. He was at the funeral. He saw others with weapons attacking your husband — his brother. He (Patrick) had no weapon at any stage.” She replied: “That is a lie. He is lying.”
“He moved in to try and protect his brother Thomas. You are shaking your head. You don’t agree?” Mr Grehan said and she replied, “no”. “He (Patrick) ended up getting hit himself and getting cut when he was trying to protect Tom (the deceased),” Mr Grehan continued. “He tried to push people away, but there was just too many people.”
Ms Dooley replied: “That is lies… He was laughing and he cut my husband’s legs.” Mr Grehan said that was nonsense. “He was there cutting my husband,” she repeated. Mr Grehan said to the witness: “You have brainwashed your children to have the same belief.”
Ms Dooley said: “Excuse my English, that is bullshit. They are traumatised with what they witnessed. They will never get over this… Every drop of blood that came out of my husband, they knows it.”
Questioned about identifying one named person as being involved in the attack on her husband where it turned out that CCTV showed he was elsewhere and could not have been involved, she said: “I got confused in the names.” Mr Grehan said: “You are capable of being mistaken.”
“I am not, for the rest of them,” she replied. Mr Grehan suggested to Ms Dooley that she had a falling out with another of those accused of murder, Thomas Dooley Sr, and his family. She replied: “No, we never had a falling out. The trouble only started when my daughter refused to marry Tom Dooley’s son, Thomas. We were not speaking. We never fell out. It was a clean break. We never communicated after. We never spoke.” She said her daughter Rosie left Thomas Jr in November 2019 on the day one of her other daughters was getting married.
On behalf of Thomas Dooley Sr, defence senior counsel Tom Creed cross-examined the witness about how many times her husband was struck and she said she did not know, adding: “Thomas (Sr) struck him in the legs and the blood just shooted up into the air — it was like a spray button.”
In a statement to gardaí, Ms Dooley said she saw Thomas Dooley Sr take off his jacket and put it over a headstone and pull out a bill-hook and machete. She told Mr Creed in court that he pulled them from a pocket of the jacket or from the jacket.
“There is Tom (Sr) and there is Patrick — where is everybody else?”Mr Creed asked. She replied: “They all was in on top of him. They all was standing over him, hitting him.” Mr Creed asked: “Do you mean six people?”
She replied: “Six people gathered around him. I saw six people gathered around him. I saw Tom and Patrick hitting him with weapons. The only ones I saw hitting him were Tom and Patrick.”
Mr Creed said of those (other than Thomas Sr and Patrick): “You could not see if they were hitting him.” And she agreed, “I couldn’t, no.” The trial continues before Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork. The jury, including three substitute members, consists of 13 men and two women.
The defendants all replied not guilty to the murder of 43-year-old Tom Dooley from Hazelwood Drive, Killarney, at New Rath Cemetery, Rathass, Tralee, on October 5, 2022.
Five defendants in the case — all with the surname Dooley — Patrick, 36, from Arbutus Grove, Killarney; Thomas, 43, from the halting site, Carrigrohane Road; Thomas Jr, 21, from the halting site, Carrigrohane, Cork; Michael, 29, of the halting site, Carrigrohane, Cork, and Daniel, 42, of An Carraigin, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry, are on trial, as is the sixth defendant who is a teenager.
Only 21-year-old Thomas Dooley Jr faces the second charge that he intentionally or recklessly caused serious harm to Siobhán Dooley, the wife of the deceased man. There was also a not-guilty plea in respect of this count.
