Padraig Nally, a farmer living in a remote area near Cong, Co. Mayo, became aware around 2pm on 14 October 2005 that a car with two men had driven up outside his house. He got his gun and went outside. There was only one man in the car when Padraig Nally reached it.
He asked where the second man had gone and was told he had gone to the rear of the house. Nally went around the back of the house, saw a man (John Ward) at the kitchen door and fired a shot at him, wounding him. Nally then hit the man up to 20 times on the head with a thick stick. "He was like a badger," he said afterwards, "You could hit him, but you could not kill him."
John Ward, then limped down the road, away from the house. Padraig Nally went inside his house, reloaded his gun, went outside, followed John Ward down the road and shot him in the back at close range, while John Ward was crouched in front of him. Nally then threw Ward's body over a hedge. Padraig Nally later acknowledged he had intended to kill John Ward.
Padraig Nally was originally sentences to six years in prison, however an appeal last month revoked his sentence and Nally walked free. This decision has caused outrage and disgust throughout the traveling community.
Mary Cassidy a Traveller and a community development worker in Talllaght Travellers’ Community Development Project explains, "there is no way that Padraig Nally would be free if it was a ‘settled man’ he had killed." She believes that Padraig Nally killed John Ward in cold blood, and that it was not self-defense. "The law allows for reasonable force to be used against intruders, but this went way beyond reasonable force. The decision to release Padraig Nally reflects the bias that the justice system has against Travellers, as a minority in Irish society. Travellers suffer much discrimination and the main political parties are not interested in defending their rights because it would not win votes for them."
Mary believes that these events have had a very negative impact on the whole Travelling community. Travellers whose livelihood depends on selling goods door to door, especially in rural areas, now feel intimated to continue this practice as the press has vilified all Travellers as con-men and thieves. She argues that this is a complete misrepresentation of the real situation and an insult to all Irish Travellers.
