Pádraig Nally acquitted of manslaughter

After deliberating for more than two days a jury yesterday acquitted Pádraig Nally of manslaughter. The 62-year-old Co. Mayo farmer had admitted killing John "Frog" Ward (42) who had entered his remote farmhouse uninvited, not knowing that Mr Nally was in a nearby outhouse. What made the case particularly contentious was the level of violence used by Mr Nally and the fact that the dead man was a Traveller.
During the trial it was claimed that Mr Nally, who lived alone, had been living in real fear for many months as a result of a number of break-ins and thefts from his farm near the village of Cross. It was, however, not disputed that after firing one shot at Mr Ward, Mr Nally then beat the father of 11 with a stick before reloading his shotgun and firing after him as he tried to limp down the road.
Supporters of Mr Nally deny emphatically that the incident and verdict display a deep prejudice against Travellers and point to the fact that Mr Ward was a violent man with more than 80 convictions; a warrant was out for his arrest at the time of the incident in October 2004. Travellers and their support groups disagree. They maintain that, had a Traveller shot a member of the settled community in similar circumstances, he would have been convicted and jailed for life.
This trial was held in Dublin. An earlier trial which found Mr Nally not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter was heard in Mayo. He then spent 11 months in prison before his appeal was heard and a retrial ordered.
The verdict came as something of a surprise not least, it seems, to Mr Nally and his supporters. Afterwards he spoke briefly to reporters, thanking those who had supported him and to say, "I feel sorrow for the Ward family who have lost a father and are left with young children". Friday's newspapers gave the story enormous coverage, the tabloids enthusiastically applauding the outcome and the broadsheets taking a more balanced view. Mayo politicians mostly welcomed the verdict while they and others called for a change in the law so that people seen as defending their property would not go through the turmoil experienced by Mr Nally.