Prejudice towards the Travelling community is “the elephant in the room” in Irish society but jurors should leave such bias behind when trying the case of six men accused of the murder of a man at a funeral in Kerry, a counsel has urged.
Dean Kelly SC, prosecution counsel, told the jury of 13 men and two women trying the six men accused of the murder of Thomas Dooley (43) in Rath Cemetery in Tralee on October 5th 2022 that neither sympathy nor prejudice should play any part in their deliberations on the case.
The accused are Patrick Dooley (39) of Arbutus Grove, Killarney, Daniel Dooley (42) of An Carraigin, Connolly Park, Tralee, Thomas Dooley Snr (43), Thomas Dooley Jnr (21) and Michael Dooley (29) of Carrigrohane Road, Cork and a teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Stressing that what he was saying was not evidence, Mr Kelly opened the prosecution case before the jury and Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork and gave an outline of the evidence which he said the State plans to call over the coming weeks.
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He explained that the deceased and the accused, who all deny the charge of murder, were members of an extended Traveller family and one of the accused, Patrick Dooley, was the brother of the man he is accused of murdering, being some eight to nine years his junior.
Three of his fellow accused, Thomas Dooley Snr, Daniel Dooley and Michael Dooley from the Carrigrohane Road in Cork, are brothers to each other and they were all cousins of the deceased while Thomas Dooley Snr was also a brother-in-law of the deceased.
Thomas Dooley Jnr, the only one of the accused to face a charge of causing serious harm to the deceased’s widow, Siobhán Dooley (née McDonagh), is a son of fellow accused Thomas Dooley Snr and also related to the deceased, Mr Kelly told the jury.
He told the jury that they would hear evidence that the deceased Thomas Dooley and his wife, Siobhán, and their four youngest children, all aged 15 or under, went to Tralee on the day in question to attend the funeral of their friend, Bridget O’Brien.
He said that they were late for the funeral and did not attend the church part of the ceremony but pulled up at Kelleher’s Garage at Rathass and crossed the road to enter the cemetery at Rath where Ms O’Brien’s burial was due to take place.
“Within a matter of moments, Thomas Dooley was set upon and attacked by a group of men armed with bladed weapons – he received a number of wounds which led to his death as well as a number of other wounds in this savage and violent attack.”
Mr Kelly said the jury would hear the most significant injuries Mr Dooley suffered included a stab wound that penetrated over six centimetres into his back and caused spinal shock.
He said they would also hear that Mr Dooley suffered another stab wound that penetrated 10 centimetres into his thigh which severed his femoral artery leading to significant blood loss as well as a significant chop injury to his right arm extending for some 25 centimetres.
Mr Kelly said the prosecution was basing its case against all six accused on the doctrine of joint enterprise and common design where if a group of people embark on a criminal act, each individual is guilty of the offence if they act as a group even if another may perform the act.
“It is not the prosecution case that I can say whose hand was on the blade when it was driven into Thomas Dooley’s back, whose hand was on the blade that inflicted the chop wound or whose hand was on the blade that was driven into Thomas Dooley’s thigh.
“We don’t say we can identify that hand. We say we can identify the men acting as a single murderous gang. They carried out their role side by side, cheek by jowl – we say they came together to act in a group and there was a clear criminal purpose forged earlier.
“I want you to know this, this was not a fight. If you hear it was a fight it cannot be called a fight. This was not a row. This was not an escalation. It was nothing of the sort. Thomas Dooley was attacked by a group, attacked with a focused ferocity.”
Mr Kelly said the State would also present evidence that would show that Thomas Dooley “did not offer the slightest insult or provocation, open his mouth or raise his hand in any way in connection with his murder” that day in Rath Cemetery.
Mr Kelly said that while the jury might feel sympathy for Ms Dooley and her seven children it was possible they might also feel sympathy for the accused before them particularly given the youth of some of them. But sympathy should play no part in their deliberations.
“The Dooley family are a large Traveller family and the elephant in the room is the prejudice faced by the Traveller community in this country . . . if you think that prejudice might be edging you towards a guilty verdict, that’s a verdict the DPP has no interest in.”
The case continues.
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