Wife describes fatal attack on husband at Kerry funeral

The wife of 42-year-old father-of-seven Thomas Dooley has described the moment her husband was attacked and fatally injured as they attended a funeral in County Kerry in October 2022.

Siobhán Dooley also suffered serious injuries.

Six people, including Thomas Dooley’s brother and three of his cousins, are on trial for murder.

Appearing before the court are: Patrick Dooley, aged 36, of 33 Arbutus Grove, Killarney, Co Kerry, a brother of the deceased; Thomas Dooley Sr., aged 43, and Thomas Dooley Junior, aged 21, both of Bay 10, Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Cork; Michael Dooley, aged 29, of Bay 11, Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Cork; and Daniel Dooley, aged 42, of An Caraigín, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry.

The sixth person is a teenager. All six have pleaded not guilty.

Mrs Dooley told the jury at the Central Criminal Court that she and her husband travelled from their home in Killarney on the morning of October 5, 2022 to attend the funeral of a family friend at Rath Cemetery in Tralee.

She said that shortly after entering the cemetery, she saw four people walking toward her. She identified the first two as Patrick, her husband’s brother, and his cousin Thomas Dooley Senior.

She said they were grinning.

She said she saw something in Thomas Senior’s hand and told her husband to run away, but he asked why and said there was no reason to run away.

She said Thomas Dooley Sr. had two guns: one was shiny and looked new, the other was rusty. She said she remembered him taking off his jacket “so casually” and placing it on a gravestone.

“I think one had some kind of round lid on it and the other one and the other one was a big piece of egg yolk,” she said of the weapons.

She said she could not name the weapons because she had never seen anything like them before.

She said Thomas Dooley Sr. said, “You’re a big man now.” She said Patrick Dooley, her husband’s brother, also had a gun.

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She said she saw Thomas Dooley Jr. and the teenager come through a gate and the teenager had a long object in his hand.

“It was like something you see in Indian films, like an axe,” she said.

She also said that Thomas Dooley, Jr. had a gun and that he hit her with the gun, which caused a “bang” and injured her.

She also said that Mike Dooley was there, standing behind her husband with a gun in his hand.

She said Patrick Dooley and Thomas Dooley Sr. grabbed her husband by “both collars” and attacked him. She said Mike Dooley and Thomas Dooley Jr. were standing behind her husband.

“When I saw the weapons, I knew they would cause damage,” she said. She tried to push herself between them, but she knew she had no hope.

She said she heard one of them say, “Get her out, too. Get rid of her.”

She said she got another bang and was knocked to the ground. They all gathered around her husband and he turned to her and told her to run away.

She said they beat him with the weapons they had and there was blood everywhere.

Mrs. Dooley testified in court that Patrick Dooley and Thomas Dooley Sr. struck her husband’s legs with the weapons. Thomas Dooley Sr. told her husband, “You’re a big man now.” She said Patrick Dooley laughed.

“They were pushing each other to get to him,” she said. “I remember one of them pushing Mike and saying, ‘Give me a chance.'”

Ms Dooley said she ran out of the cemetery and saw a police car in a garage across the street. She ran to an officer and yelled at him to get help.

“They’re going to kill him,” she said.

Ms Dooley’s testimony is expected to continue tomorrow, when she will be cross-examined by the legal teams for the six defendants.