A JUDGE HAS handed down five life sentences to the family members who murdered father-of-seven Thomas ‘Tom’ Dooley in “an honour killing” during a Co Kerry funeral, after hearing that his last act was to tell his wife to run so she could be saved.

Siobhan Dooley said today that she had made a promise to her husband “on the day we put him in the ground” that she would get justice for him, telling the Central Criminal Court: “And justice we did get”.

Passing sentence on the five men today, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said there had been protestations of innocence and miscarriages of justice made by the defendants in court.

“Let’s be clear, the only innocents were the late Thomas Dooley, his wife and their children. The only miscarriage of justice was the talking of his life and the loss to his family,” she stressed.

The judge said no explanation for the decision to kill Thomas Dooley had ever been proffered. “No explanation could excuse his death. The violence in this case was totally unwarranted and unspeakable,” she said.

Detective Sergeant Ernie Henderson, from Tralee Garda Station, delivered an emotional victim impact statement at the Central Criminal Court today on behalf of the wife of the late Thomas Dooley (43) and her seven children.

In her statement, Siobhan Dooley said what had happened in the graveyard that day would “have an everlasting impact” on her.

The mother of seven added: “Everyday when I wake from only a few hours sleep I think it’s all been a really horrible nightmare but then I’m thrown back into our new reality. I will never understand why Thomas was murdered in the most horrible way”.

She said there was nothing she could do to save her husband. “In his last words to me, he told me to run, so that I could be saved,” she continued.

Describing her husband who she met when she was 16 years old, Mrs Dooley (45) said he was “such a softie, who was never a troublemaker and the way in which he left this world was just not fair to him”.

The testimony was heard as part of a powerful victim impact statement read on behalf of the Dooley family to the Central Criminal Court today.

During the attack, Mrs Dooley sustained a wound which went from her right shoulder and extended to her armpit, requiring 45 stitches and 30 staples.

Referring to her injury in the statement, Mrs Dooley said everyday she sees the “horrible scar” under her arm and it is a “constant reminder of that horrible day”. “A scar that I will always have”.

During today’s sentence hearing, Mrs Dooley said she had travelled to Cork everyday from her home in Killarney for the seven week trial, which had been “very hard” for her.

“We had to listen to all the details surrounding what happened that day over and over again. Everyday we had to see the six men that murdered my husband and my children’s daddy sitting in the courtroom.”

She said she did not know when she would ever feel a “sense of calmness again”.

Mrs Dooley said on the day her husband was murdered, they had travelled to Tralee to the funeral of her “good friend” Bridget O’Brien. She said they were in “great form” and they crossed over the road to the graveyard. “Thomas was walking in front….I had no idea at that time of the horror show we were about to see”.

In closing her statement, Mrs Dooley said that she had made a promise to her husband “on the day we put him in the ground” that she would get justice for him, telling the Central Criminal Court: “And justice we did get for him”.

“As a family we will never get over what happened to Thomas, that horror will never leave us. To lose someone to God is always hard but the way he was murdered is a death that no one ever deserves and certainly not my Thomas.

“I am blessed to have my babies and my grandbabies and together we will always talk about Thomas and keep his memory alive,” she concluded.

After nearly 21 hours of jury deliberations over five days, the six defendants – which included a teenage boy – were convicted by a jury of taking part in a “macabre provincial tragedy” by “butchering” Thomas Dooley in “an honour killing” which the State said had been carried out with “appalling, medieval violence”.

These were the younger brother of the late Thomas Dooley, Patrick Dooley (36) with an address at Arbutus Grove, Killarney, Thomas Dooley’s cousin and brother-in-law Thomas Dooley Senior (43) and that man’s son, Thomas Dooley Junior (21), along with Michael Dooley (29), all of the Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Cork and Daniel Dooley (42) of An Carraigin, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry, as well as a male teenager.

They had all pleaded not guilty to murdering Thomas Dooley at Rath Cemetery, Rathass, Tralee, Co Kerry on 5 October 2022.

Thomas Dooley Jnr was also found guilty of assault causing harm to the wife of the late Mr Dooley, Siobhán Dooley at Rath Cemetery on the same date. He was jailed for four-and-a half years today for this offence and it was backdated from when he went into custody on 16 November 2022.

The sentence for assault causing harm will run concurrently to the life sentence imposed today.

Five of the defendants were handed life sentences today by Ms Justice Ring at Cork Courthouse on Anglesea Street. The sentences were backdated to when each of the defendants went into custody.

The male teenager found guilty of murder was not sentenced today, as it is believed he is to seek a judicial review of his case. He will next be before the court for mention on 29 October.

It was the prosecution case that Mr Dooley died when he was violently attacked by six men as he attended a funeral at Rath Cemetery and suffered what the State described as savage injuries, inflicted by a group armed with bladed weapons and acting with “focused and murderous ferocity” in broad daylight.

The ten men and two women of the jury accepted the State’s case that the six defendants had taken part in the joint enterprise to murder Thomas Dooley.

In his closing speech, Mr Dean Kelly SC, prosecuting, submitted to the jury that the six men had used “medieval violence” to “butcher” the father-of-seven in “an honour killing” during the funeral, carrying out a “biblical atrocity” that was “tragic and heartbreaking as it was ridiculous and stupid”.

Kelly said that “honour” had been offended when Thomas Dooley’s daughter had refused to marry Thomas Dooley Junior and their relationship broke down. He submitted that this was “a score that was to be settled”.

The barrister said the trial had a combination of the macabre, a provincial tragedy and appalling medieval violence.

“Yet for all those heady phrases what was left behind was a widow with seven children in the most pointless, wasteful and needless circumstances,” he added.