LAST UPDATE | 11 Sep

A 17-YEAR-OLD BOY has been jailed for eight years for the murder of Cork postman Barry Daly, who was beaten to death with a golf club outside his home in Doneraile, Co Cork in October of last year.

A trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork heard that the father of five had his jaw broken into fragments in an attack in the early hours of 12 October 2025.

The 44-year-old was left unable to breathe as he was inhaling a large amount of blood into his lungs. He died of cardiorespiratory arrest. A broken head of a golf club was found not far from his body.

Last month, Alex Deady (21) of Glenview, Convent Road, Doneraile, Co Cork was jailed for life for the murder of Daly.

Today, his two co-accused, a 17-year-old who was convicted of the same murder, and a 16-year-old who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Daly, appeared before a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork for sentencing. 

Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford noted that the evening of 11 October 2025 in Doneraile was a joyous time for the town as the local team had won Junior B hurling championship.

Nearly the “entire town was on Main Street” as the players were given a lap of honour. She said that lot of drinking followed in area pubs.

The judge stated that various brawls had ensued outside a pub in the town at closing time.

The evidence was that the murder happened after Barry Daly struck the girlfriend of Alex Deady outside the pub. Accounts varied as to whether it was an accident or deliberate.

Jurors were told that Deady was incensed that his “woman” had been hit. Ms Justice Lankford said that as a result, the three young men had gone on an “armed retaliatory expedition” to the home of Barry Daly.

‘He died almost immediately’

In sentencing the 17-year-old accused, Ms Justice Lankford acknowledged that there was “very little evidence as to what occurred” in the early hours of 12 October outside the home of Mr Daly in Rockview Terrace.

She said that the evidence had been that Katie O’Reilly, the long-time partner of the deceased, had been lying in her bed when she heard a voice saying “I’m going to kill you.” She then heard a “whack.” The judge said that O’Reilly went outside her home and found her partner lying dead on the ground.

“He died almost immediately. He was lying on his head. There was a large amount of blood pooling from the back of his head.”

The judge said that when the three young men approached Mr Daly outside his home, “each of the individuals had a golf club in their hand.”

She stated that it was a mitigating factor in the case that the 17-year-old had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case. However, she noted that his plea was not acceptable to the DPP.

She said that Deady had told gardaí that he hit Mr Daly once. Deady insisted that he was the only person who struck Mr Daly.

The judge said that the 17-year-old had told his probation officer that he couldn’t tolerate violence against women. By way of mitigation, she noted that he was doing the Leaving Certificate applied in Oberstown, had no previous convictions, and had shown remorse in the case. Professionals who compiled reports on the youth noted his “undeveloped locus of control.”

Ms Justice Lankford accepted that the youth hailed from a “positive supportive family.” She also acknowledged that he had written a letter of apology to the Daly family.

By way of aggravating factors, she said that it was not an attack that could be described as “spontaneous”. Weapons were brought to the scene on the night of the offence.

The judge said that the 17-year-old had at least 30 minutes to reflect on what he was doing before the attack occurred. She took case law into account when sentencing the teenager.

A headline sentence of 15 years was set. She said that she accepted that a mandatory life sentence should only be imposed in exceptional circumstances when it involves a child or adolescent.

Ms Justice Lankford said that Mr Daly was killed outside his home where he was “entitled to feel safe.”

Describing the attack on Mr Daly as “vicious”, she acknowledged that the 17-year-old was not the “instigator” of what occurred.

Taking the relative immaturity of the accused into account, as well as trauma he had suffered in his life, she sentenced the youth to 11 years, but suspended the last three years to facilitate his integration back in to the community.

The 17-year-old also received a two-year sentence, which will run concurrently, for assaulting a man earlier on the same evening.

Manslaughter sentencing

In sentencing the 16-year-old for manslaughter, Ms Justice Lankford noted that he was a “secondary juvenile participant” whose role was not as significant as that of the other teenager.

She said that he had no previous convictions or previous history of violence. An aggravating factor was that the 16-year-old had been captured on CCTV footage carrying a broken golf club on the night of the attack.

The judge said that by way of mitigation, the 16-year-old was the youngest of the three by a ”significant margin.”

Setting a headline sentence of three years and taking a positive report into account, she sentenced the teenager to two-and-a-half years in detention, suspending the final six months of the sentence. The guilty plea was taken into account in sentencing,

She said that the teenager came from a “stable and supportive family.” However, she said that he seemed to be of low average intelligence and had difficulty in resisting negative peer influences.

The judge said that the CCTV footage had shown the teenager “lagging behind” his two co-accused at all times.

She said that whilst the attack on Daly was not prolonged, it was “vicious.”

She offered her heartfelt sympathy to the family of the deceased following the loss of “an exceptional man.” She described their victim impact statements as moving and added that it was clear that the postman was an exceptional father.

At a previous hearing of the case, Katie O’Reilly said that once she met her partner, they “never left each other’s side.”

O’Reilly said that Father’s Day now means bringing their children bringing balloons to a grave.

“No child should ever have to spend Father’s Day standing at a graveyard missing their dad,” she said. 

“[Barry Daly] will miss school achievements, graduations, first cars, first jobs, weddings and grandchildren.”