Ireland

Padraig Nally, who shot trespasser John ‘Frog’ Ward on his Mayo farm in 2004, dies aged 81

Farmer’s high-profile 2005 manslaughter conviction was quashed and he was found not guilty in a retrial

Pádraig Nally leaving the High Court after a hearing. Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times
Pádraig Nally leaving the High Court after a hearing. Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times
Tom Shiel
Fri Nov 29 2024 - 14:49

Mayo farmer Padraig Nally, who became the focus of a cause celebre in 2004 when he shot dead trespasser John “Frog” Ward, has died aged 81 following a long illness.

In November 2005, Mr Nally was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for the manslaughter of Ward, a Traveller and father of 11 who had been trespassing on his farm near Lough Corrib on the Mayo-Galway border.

However, his conviction was quashed in October 2006 and, in a retrial two months later, he was found not guilty of manslaughter.

Supporters of Mr Nally and some local politicians welcomed the jury’s finding that the then 62-year-old farmer was not guilty of manslaughter, but Traveller support groups and Ward’s family expressed dismay at the verdict.

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After being acquitted at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Nally told reporters, as he prepared to travel home from Dublin to his 65-acre farm, that he often thought of the man he had shot dead more than two years earlier and regularly prayed for him.

“I think of what happened all the time. It is always on my mind,” Mr Nally said.

Expressing sympathy with John Ward’s widow, Marie, and their 11 children, he said: “These 11 youngsters are now without a father. It is a big loss to them.”

Mr Nally, a bachelor, conceded that due to the national and international publicity over the incident, he was “now a celebrity”, but wanted “to live that down”.

“I know I am known all over Ireland. I got thousands of letters and many cards and Mass requests while I was in prison. Even while I was in Dublin, people came up to me on the street wanting to shake my hand,” he said.

Following his acquittal, Mr Nally settled back to farming. He was a regular at Maam Cross Mart.

Ward was a 43-year-old Traveller with approximately 80 convictions for burglary, larceny and assault.

At his first trial, Mr Nally said he had been unable to sleep properly after a number of farms in his area were burgled. His own home was broken into in 2003 and a chainsaw was stolen from one of his sheds.

Mr Nally’s counsel, Brendan Grehan, told the jury his client was “at the end of his tether, agitated and fearful, even paranoid about his safety”.