The Central Criminal Court has heard a Co. Galway woman who stabbed a US national to death should be given the chance to 'heal herself' and 'leave violence behind'.

31-year-old Maura Thornton from Spiddal was cleared by a jury last January of the murder of Kevin Joyce but was found guilty of his manslaughter at an apartment she rented in Upper Salthill on Sunday July 31st 2011.

In a victim impact statement, read out to the court at her sentencing hearing today, Kevin Joyce's daughter Michaela said her father was 'not always easy to get on with but his heart was kind and he was a forgiving man'.

'Like my Dad, I think Maura Thornton should be given the chance to change the path of her own life, to heal herself, to forgive herself and leave violence behind her', she said.

The court heard the 31-year-old stabbed her ex-lover 18 times with a knife on the rooftop of her apartment after he appeared unannounced at her kitchen window.

She had been drinking heavily.

'Thank you for forgiveness'

Maura Thornton spent much of today's sentencing hearing in tears. She gave evidence that Kevin Joyce was 'a kind man, boisterous, gregarious, funny'.

She met the 59-year-old, a US national living in Ireland, in January 2011 at a Celtic Studies course in NUI Galway.

The court was told by Superintendent Noel Kelly that the relationship involved considerable alcohol use and could be classed as volatile at times.

On the stand, Maura Thornton said she wasn't sorry as sorry is something you say when you bump into someone or spill tea.

'If I could give my left arm I would but I can't, just to thank the Joyce family for their forgiveness' she said.

She has 27 previous convictions; including possession of knives and 2 assaults on gardai.

She was cleared of murder after a 6 day trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Galway last January but was convicted of his manslaughter.

The jury found she had been provoked by Kevin Joyce.

Paul Greene, SC, said it's the Director of Public Prosecution's view that the killing falls at the upper end of the scale, in part, due to the level of violence involved.

The defence says she offered a plea to manslaughter before her trial and is "very suicidal, remorseful and sorry''.

Mr. Justice Barry White has remanded the 31-year-old in custody until Wednesday when he will finalise her sentence.