‘He was torn to shreds in the physical sense – then his character was torn to shreds too’
Community left divided after manslaughter verdict returned
THE community in north Kerry has been left shattered and uneasy following the “character assassination” of deceased John Anthony O’Mahony during the course of a murder trial.
Mr O’Mahony was brutally killed when a heavy piece of agricultural machinery, a teleporter, was crashed into his car on April 4, 2017.
On Friday, local dairy farmer Michael Ferris (63) was cleared of murdering the 73-year-old tillage farmer but will be sentenced later for his manslaughter.
However, many locals say the picture painted during the intense two-week trial in Tralee was a caricature and not the man they knew.
There has been strong reaction to the portrayal of the dead man, who was painted throughout the trial as difficult and awkward and as someone out of control.
Brendan Grehan, defence counsel, said he made “absolutely no apology” for the “not normal” strategy of speaking ill of the dead, what could be seen as “character assassination”.
He argued that it had to be done to show what had provoked Ferris, and to show that the community was living in fear of a totally unreasonable person.
But prominent local people paid tribute to the hurler, reader, ground-breaking farmer and intelligent man.
He could be described as odd, but that was because of his devotion to his crops, they said.
He grew tomatoes and other vegetables and plants under glass in Rattoo when no one else did and supplied markets in Dublin and London.
He hurled with Ballyduff in his youth and had a great love of sport and the GAA. He was keen on horse racing and enjoyed a flutter. He read the Irish Independent each day and bought a number of farm magazines each week.
He had a family of siblings and nieces and nephews who loved him.
Mr O’Mahony’s memorial card, with a picture of Padre Pio, opens on to a photo of fields of wheat surrounding his beloved lands in Rattoo.
“He was a fanatic about husbandry, a real purist, a perfectionist. He was obsessed about his crops. He was meticulous. What was going on in Rattoo was not about getting at the people,” one north Kerry person said this weekend.
They also spoke about what is a well-known fact locally – Rattoo is “notorious” for its crow population. The repeated noise from a crow banger, designed to scare the birds away from Mr O’Mahony’s crops, was a crucial factor in the trial. The land in Rattoo, farmed by the Ferris brothers and the O’Mahonys, is “part of a rich, deep vein of land, and is as good as any you’d get in any part of Ireland,” one man said.
“He was obsessed with that land, with growing his crops. That was his life,” another person said.
Meanwhile, the community in Ballyduff will rely on their strong faith to pull them out of it, according to locals.
One of the most harrowing parts of the trial was when Dr Margot Bolster spent an hour describing the injuries inflicted by the prongs of the teleporter to every part of Mr O’Mahony’s body.
“He has been torn to shreds, not just in the physical sense. His character was torn to shreds last week, before the nation, and this is causing terrible upset to the family,” one local said.
Ferris will be sentenced for manslaughter next month.