Farmer Padraig Nally - who faced trial over shooting of John 'Frog' Ward - passes away aged 81

Mayo farmer Padraig Nally, who became the centre of headlines twenty years ago following the shooting dead of a traveller John ‘Frog’ Ward, has passed away aged 81 following a long illness.

In November 2005, Mr. Nally was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for the manslaughter of Ward who had been trespassing on his farm near Lough Corrib on the Mayo/Galway border.

However, his conviction was quashed in October 2006 and, in a retrial two months later, he was found not guilty of manslaughter.

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After being acquitted at the Central Criminal Court, Mr. Nally told reporters, as he prepared to travel home from Dublin to his 65-acre farm, that he often thought of the man he shot dead more than two years earlier and regularly prayed for him.

"I think of what happened all the time. It is always on my mind", Mr. Nally declared.

Expressing sympathy with John Ward's widow, Marie, and their eleven children, he continued: "These eleven youngsters are now without a father. It is a big loss to them."

Mr. Nally, a bachelor, conceded that due to the national and international publicity that the extraordinary circumstances of his situation had received, he was “now a celebrity” but had “to live that down”.

"I know I am known all over Ireland. I got thousands of letters and many cards and Mass requests while I was in prison. Even while I was in Dublin people came up to me on the street wanting to shake my hand".

Following his acquittal Mr. Nally settled back to farming. Livestock was a big part of his life. He was a regular at Maam Cross Mart but kept to himself socially for the most part.

Nally’s victim, John ‘Frog’ Ward was a 43-year-old traveller with approximately 80 convictions for burglary, larceny and assault.

At his first trial Nally said he had been unable to sleep properly as a number of farms in his area had been burgled and his own home had been broken into in 2003 and a chainsaw stolen from one of his sheds.

Nally’s counsel, Brendan Grehan told the jury his client was “at the end of his tether agitated and fearful, even paranoid about his safety”.

Counsel went on to describe Nally as a law-abiding member of the community who acted in self defence.

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