The wife of 42-year-old father-of-seven Thomas Dooley has been describing to a Central Criminal Court jury the moment her husband was attacked and fatally injured, as they attended a funeral in Co Kerry in October, 2022.
Siobhán Dooley also received serious injuries.
Six people, including Thomas Dooley’s brother and three of his first cousins are on trial, charged with his murder.
Before the court are: 36-year-old Patrick Dooley of 32 Arbutus Grove, Killarney, Co Kerry, a brother of the deceased; 43-year-old Thomas Dooley senior and 21-year-old Thomas Dooley Junior, both of Bay 10, Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Cork; 29-year-old Michael Dooley of Bay 11, Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Cork; and 42-year-old Daniel Dooley, of An Caraigín, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry.
The sixth person is a teenager. All six have pleaded not guilty.
Siobhán Dooley told the jury she and her husband, Thomas, travelled from their home in Killarney to attend the funeral of a family friend at Rath Cemetery in Tralee on the morning of 5 October 2022.
She said very soon after they entered the cemetery, she saw four people coming towards her. She identified the first two as her husband’s brother, Patrick, and his first cousin, Thomas Dooley senior.
She said they were grinning.
She said she saw something in Thomas senior’s hand and she told her husband to run, but he asked why and said he had nothing to run for.
She said Thomas Dooley senior had two weapons: one was shiny and looked to be new and the other had rust on it. She said she remembered him taking off his jacket “so casually” and placing it on a headstone.
“I think one had a kind of a round top on it and the other and the other was a big chunk of a yolk,” she said, referring to the weapons.
She said she could not name the weapons, because she had never seen anything like them before.
She said Thomas Dooley senior was saying: ‘you’re a big man now’. She said Patrick Dooley, her husband’s brother, also had a weapon.
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She said she saw Thomas Dooley junior and the teenager coming through a gate. She said the teenager had something long in his hand.
“It was like something you would see in the Indian movies, like an axe,” she said.
She also said Thomas Dooley junior had a weapon. She said she saw Thomas Dooley junior swinging and she got a bang. She said she got cut.
She also said Mike Dooley was there, with a weapon in his hand, standing behind her husband.
She said Patrick Dooley and Thomas Dooley senior grabbed her husband by the two collars and they were “at” him. She said Mike Dooley and Thomas Dooley junior were standing behind her husband.
“I knew they were going to do harm when I saw the weapons,” she said.
She said she tried to squeeze in between them, but she knew she had no hope.
She said she heard one of them saying: “Take her out too. Get rid of her.”
She said she got another bang and was knocked to the ground. She said they were all gathered around her husband and he turned to her and told her to run.
She said they were hitting him with the weapons they had and there was blood everywhere.
She said Patrick Dooley and Thomas Dooley senior were striking her husband’s legs with the weapons. Thomas Dooley senior was saying to her husband: “You’re a big man now.” She said Patrick Dooley was laughing.
“They were actually pushing each other to get into him,” she said. “I remember one of them pushing Mike saying ‘give me a chance’.”
Siobhán Dooley said she ran out of the cemetery and saw a garda car in a garage across the road. She ran to a garda and started roaring at him to get help.
“They’re going to kill him,” she said.
Siobhán Dooley’s evidence is expected to resume in the morning, when she is expected to be cross-examined by legal teams for the six accused.
