A 17-YEAR-OLD MALE 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 in October of last year.

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 12 October 2025.

He pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty of the manslaughter of the father of five.

Mr Daly had suffered a catastrophic jaw injury which rendered him unable to breathe as he was effectively swallowing blood.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for seven hours and 29 minutes before today (Thursday) finding the 17-year-old unanimously guilty of the murder of Mr Daly. Judge Siobhan Lankford thanked the jury for their diligence and excused them from jury service for a period of five years.

Two others have been before the court about the death of Mr Daly. Alex Deady (21) of Glenview, Convent Road in Doneraile was convicted on 3 July of the murder of Mr Daly.

The 17-year-old was part of that first trial, but the jury had been unable to reach a verdict about him. A retrial started a week after the original case ended.

A third young male, aged 16, had also been a party to the first murder trial. He denied murdering Mr Daly. In the course of the trial he lodged a plea to manslaughter which was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

All three young males will appear before the Central Criminal Court in Cork tomorrow. Victim impact statements will be heard in the case tomorrow. Sentencing is expected to be finalised at a later date.

Meanwhile, the jury in the trial of the 17-year-old heard that Mr Daly 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, SC, gave the jury an outline of the anticipated facts in the case when it got underway. He said that on 12 October 2025 the local hurling club in Doneraile won a Junior B hurling final. It was a “major deal” in Doneraile and “most of the town went out to celebrate.”

He stated that an “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 Barry Daly punched the girlfriend of Alex Deady. Accounts varied whether it was accidental or deliberate.

Witnesses said in evidence that the 17-year-old was one of three young males seen walking in the direction of Mr Daly’s home. Each male had a golf club.

When the 17-year-old was arrested he told gardaí that Mr Deady hit Mr Daly once. He claimed that he “did not do anything.”

However, the Prosecution insisted that it was “fanciful” to suggest that one blow from a golf club caused the injuries suffered by Mr Daly.

Local man John Glassett said in evidence that he was walking home in Doneraile around 2am on 12 October 2025. Mr Glassett said that he heard voices coming from the front side of Mr Daly’s home.

He heard a voice saying “Come on, Come on,” and then the person stated : “I told him I would kill him. He is sleeping in his front garden. Two blows.” Mr Glassett said that he had no idea who uttered the words. He only saw “three shadows.”

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. Dr Bolster said that Mr Daly had suffered a fracture displacement on the right side leading to fragmented pieces.

She said that this was caused by a very forceful blow, or blows, with a weapon such as the head of a golf club.

Mr Daly also had a fracture of the palatine bone in the inner aspect of the upper lip.

The partner of the deceased, Katie O’Reilly, said that Mr Daly was in great form on the last day of his life as he won a couple of hundred euros in the Lotto.

She told the jury that Barry had gone to Eily’s bar on the evening of 11 October 2025 to celebrate with other locals following the win in the hurling.

Ms O’Reilly said that she had settled down to watch television after she put their kids to bed. She was expecting her partner to come home after closing time in the pub.

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. Ms 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.”

In his closing speech to the jury prosecution senior counsel Lorcan Staines said that the attack on Mr Daly in the front garden of his home was “like something you would see in Kill Bill, it is toxic masculinity, MMA, it is all this. It is gratuitous violence.”