Teenager found guilty of murder of postman Barry Daly in Co Cork

A 17-year-old has been found guilty of the murder of a postman who was discovered in a pool of blood outside his home in Doneraile, Co Cork, last October. The teenager went on trial in mid-July at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork having been charged with the murder of Barry Daly at Rockview Terrace in Doneraile on October 12th, 2025. He pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty of the manslaughter of the father of five. The postman had suffered a catastrophic jaw injury which rendered him unable to breathe as he was effectively swallowing blood. READ MOREThe jury of seven women and five men deliberated for seven hours and 29 minutes before on Thursday unanimously finding the teenager guilty of the postman’s murder. Judge Siobhan Lankford thanked the jury for their diligence and excused them from jury service for a period of five years.Two other individuals have been before the court in relation to the death of the postman. Alex Deady (21) of Glenview, Convent Road, Doneraile was convicted of his murder on July 3rd.The 17-year-old was part of that first trial but the jury had been unable to reach a verdict in relation to him. A retrial started a week after the original case ended. A third individual, aged 16, had also been a party to the first murder trial. He denied murdering Barry Daly. In the course of the trial he lodged a plea to manslaughter which was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions. All three will appear before the Central Criminal Court in Cork on Friday where victim impact statements will be heard. Sentencing is expected to be finalised at a later date. The jury in the trial of the 17-year-old heard that the father of five died of injuries which were inflicted with a golf club. They were told that the broken head of a golf club was discovered in the garden of the deceased. Prosecution senior counsel Lorcan Staines gave the jury an outline of the anticipated facts in the case when it got under way. He said that on October 12th, 2025, the local hurling club in Doneraile won a Junior B hurling final. It was a “major deal” and “most of the town went out to celebrate”.He saidan “an enormous amount of alcohol” was consumed on the night and that at closing time a melee broke out on the Main Street outside Eily’s Bar.The jury heard evidence that the postman punched the girlfriend of Alex Deady. Accounts varied as to whether it was accidental or deliberate. Witnesses said in evidence that the 17-year-old was one of three individuals seen walking in the direction of the home of Barry Daly. Each of them had a golf club.When the 17-year-old was arrested he told gardaí that Deady hit the man once. He claimed that he “did not do anything”.However, the prosecution insisted it was “fanciful” to suggest that one blow from a golf club caused the injuries suffered by the postman. Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out the postmortem examination on Barry Daly. She indicated that severe facial trauma caused bleeding in the mouth which then “aspirated to the lungs”.There was no evidence of offensive or defensive injuries.The partner of the man, Katie O’Reilly, said that he was in great form on the last day of his life as he won a couple of hundred euro in the Lotto. She gave evidence of lying in bed during the night. She said that she heard a voice outside the window shouting “I am going to kill you.”She then heard the voice of her partner saying, “stop”. She subsequently heard the sound of someone “getting a whack of something”.She ran outside and found her partner on the ground. O’Reilly said that she knew he was dead as the back of his head was “smashed” and there was blood everywhere. “I just laid down beside him and I kept begging for him to come back.”