Interviewed by Detective Garda Dave Barry and Detective Garda Gary Costello, Alex Deady said: “I was fuming, man, that my girl got a belt. I was just mad. My missus’s face was swollen.

“As we [Deady and a 17-year-old] got to the garden he [Barry Daly] jumped out of the ditch. I could see him, I could hear him, still taunting me — ‘I knocked your missus’s teeth down her throat’.

“He just jumped out of the ditch. I didn’t even see him when I just swung. He kind of fell and hit the ground. I just ran. He was trying to pick himself up. I didn’t go down to do that.” 

Asked where he made contact with the deceased, he indicated to the left side of his head. He said: “I had no intention of killing him.” 

It was put to him: “You struck him with a golf club.” He replied: “He was stumbling — one, two steps and he went down. He was still saying f***. Oh man, it wasn’t like he was out on the ground. He was still saying f*** you, he was moving. We left. We just ran. I got such a fright. I don’t even know, oh man, it was all just a blur.

“I never in my born days think I was after killing him. It wasn’t what I went out to do. I had no intention of doing anything like that… There is a difference between having a few belts with someone and killing them… I didn’t have any plan, it was like a moment’s notice.

“I didn’t want that to happen, it was not in my head for that to happen. I had no intention of doing that to him.” 

Alex Deady also said in that interview that when he arrived at the deceased’s home at Rockview Terrace in Doneraile in the early hours of October 12, the deceased man jumped out and went to strike the 17-year-old with Alex Deady.

“I just swung and he hit the ground. I didn’t go to do it. He was still moving when I left. He was still talking, saying f*** you. That is it. I didn’t mean it. I had no intention of doing that to him. None.

“I was just instinct. I just swung. I don’t know where, what… Oh man.” 

Alex Deady and two juveniles, aged 16 and 17 at the time, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are on trial charged with murdering 44-year-old postman Barry Daly at Rockview Terrace in Doneraile on October 12, 2025. 

Alex Deady and the 17-year-old pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. The 16-year-old simply pleaded not guilty to murder.

Alex Deady said he played football, hurling and soccer and didn’t do drugs and said, “I don’t really drink, I prefer to go to the pitch than the pubs.”

State pathologist's evidence

Barry Daly sustained such a blow or blows to his face that his jaw was shattered into multiple parts and the bleeding around his mouth and into his lungs caused his death, the pathologist told the judge and jury at the murder trial today.

Assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster testified on Tuesday: “There is evidence of very severe, forceful blow or blows to the right side of the mandible with very extensive fractures to the mandible and a fractured dislocation on the left temporal mandible joint and extensive soft tissue blows.” 

Defence senior counsel Tom Creed said in layman’s terms the trauma to the right side of the jaw was of such ferocity it caused these injuries.

Dr Bolster agreed and said the jaw was broken into fragments and dislocated from where it attaches to the skull on the left side.

She said: “It caused an awful lot of bleeding that would have been inhaled into the lungs. All of these fractures of your mouth, and blood — you cannot get air into your lungs and without oxygen you die… you have blood in the windpipe, blood in the mouth, you have these fractures, you just cannot get air in.” 

Mr Creed repeated: “The most serious trauma was to the right side of the jaw causing multiple fragmentary fractures. A very serious strike can completely displace the jaw and cause a fracture on the left side.” 

During this cross-examination, the pathologist referred to the possibility that if the injuries were caused by one blow with something like a golf club, then it would be more likely that the head of the person would have been in a fixed position such as lying on the ground. Dr Bolster said this fixed position would be more likely if the injuries were caused by one blow.

“Unless the head is in a fixed position, the head is not going to fracture like this from one blow. There are two alternatives: one strike to the head when the body was on the ground; or more than one blow when upright. If there is just one blow, he must have been in a fixed position on the ground,” Dr Bolster said.

There were no offensive injuries on the deceased, such as skinned knuckles, and no defensive injuries, such as marks or damage to the forearms.

Alcohol and cocaine

The toxicology report found alcohol in the blood to the level of 213 mgs per 100mls, where the maximum permitted alcohol level for driving is 50mls. Dr Bolster classified this level of alcohol as moderately high, such that one would expect it be approaching drunkenness in a normal social drinker. However, she added the more alcohol one consumes on a regular basis, the less effect it has in terms of causing drunkenness.

Cocaine was also found in the blood of the deceased. For cocaine to be found in the blood, it would need to have been taken in the previous six hours, and certainly not more than 12 hours before.

Taken together, the alcohol and cocaine could have accelerated the death caused by trauma, jaw fractures and bleeding into the lungs, the pathologist said, explaining alcohol and cocaine were not a cause of death in themselves.

The trial continues.