Thomas Dooley’s wife has said his brutal murder will have an 'everlasting impact' on her and her family.
Five men have been sentenced to life in prison for murdering the 42-year-old at Rath Cemetery in Tralee on October 5th 2022.
During the sentencing hearing, Detective Sergeant Ernie Henderson of Tralee Garda station read out a Victim Impact Statement on behalf of Siobhan Dooley.
In the statement, she recalled how the family had travelled to Tralee for a friend's funeral on the day of his murder.
"When we reached Tralee, I remember crossing over the road to the graveyard," she said.
"Thomas was walking in front with my three sons and they were messing, jumping into puddles and laughing together.
"I had no idea at that time of the horror show we were about to see.
"What me and my children witnessed in the graveyard that day will never leave us.
"The children I had with me on that day are still traumatised to this day."
File photo of Thomas Dooley.Mrs Dooley said the children still don't talk about what happened that day or the loss of their father.
"The children don't talk about what happened to me; it's not something we have ever spoken about at home," she said.
"I think they don't talk to me about what happened as they are afraid to upset me.
"Many nights I have heard the children crying in their rooms; I would go into them and cuddle and hold them until they went to sleep, knowing why they were upset but not knowing how to ever speak to them about what happened to their daddy".
Mrs Dooley said three of the children haven't gone back to school since their father died, "purely because I am afraid for them to not be around me and I'm afraid of something happening to them".
She said that they are now homeschooled with a tutor.
"I would like to get the children back to school and to some sort of normality, but I just don't know when that will happen - I don't know when I'll ever feel that sense of calmness again," she said.
'A horrible nightmare'
Mrs Dooley said she is constantly reminded of what happened that day.
"What happening in the graveyard that day will have an everlasting impact on me," she said.
"Every day I see the horrible scar under my arm as a constant reminder of that horrible day - a scar that I will always have.
"Every day when I wake from only a few hours sleep I think it's all been a really horrible nightmare but then I'm thrown back into our new reality.
"I will never understand why Thomas was murdered in the most horrible way".
'Nothing me or the children could do'
She also recalled her husband's final words.
"In his last words to me, he told me to run so that I could be saved and the children could be saved," she said.
"There was nothing me or the children could do to save him".
She added that the two-month murder trial "has been very hard for me and the children."
"Every day we travelled up to Cork from our home in Killarney where we had to listen to all the details surrounding what happened that day over and over again.
"I made a promise to Thomas on the day we put him in the ground that I would get justice for him – and justice we did get for him".
Mrs Dooley also thanked Gardaí, her liaison officer and the legal prosecution team for "outstanding work".
