A witness has told the trial of five men and a teenager accused of murder that he heard a "massive amount of screaming going on" and thought there was going to be an "all-out riot" in a graveyard.
Michael Kennedy was giving evidence on the seventh day of the trial of six people charged with the murder of 43-year-old Thomas Dooley at New Rath Cemetery, Rathass, Tralee, Co Kerry on 5 October 2022.
Before the court are: 36-year old Patrick Dooley of 33 Arbutus Grove, Killarney, Co Kerry; 43-year old Thomas Dooley senior, of Bay 10, Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Co Cork; 21-year old Thomas Dooley junior, of Bay 10, Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Co Cork; 29-year old Michael Dooley of Bay 11, Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road, Co Cork; and 42-year old Daniel Dooley, of An Caraigín, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry.
The sixth person is a teenager. All six have pleaded not guilty to murder.
Mr Kennedy told the trial he was attending a funeral on 5 October 2022.
The Kerry County Council halting site caretaker told Prosecuting Senior Counsel Dean Kelly that he saw one of the defendants, Patrick Dooley, and a few men with him in the graveyard.
"We were great friends, knew him for about 20 years from the halting site in Killarney," Mr Kennedy said.
Witness saw 'fight going on'
But he said Patrick "wasn't as friendly as he would normally be - he was a bit agitated. I'd usually have a chat with him," he told Mr Kelly.
Mr Kennedy, who is caretaker for the Tralee and Killarney halting sites, said that when the coffin was being taken off the hearse, he said he heard Patrick behind him say: "C'mon now, boys," and saw a bunch of men go down towards the entrance gate.
"I saw a couple of men running down, a fight going on, but I was looking out for myself, I thought there might be a massive riot," he added.
He said he saw "a fella with a thing like a sword" and "four, five or six" others with other implements running.
He described the sword as being a foot or two in length.
Mr Kennedy described walking down towards "the trouble" afterwards and said he saw Thomas Dooley and he seemed to be dead.
"Some people tried to help him, there were just a few breaths as if the air was leaving his body," he said.
He said the graveyard was quiet at this stage, but he heard roaring and shouting across the road at the garage.
When he went over, he saw Thomas Dooley's wife Siobhán inside the shop.
"She had an injury to her shoulder. She was like a person who had been attacked," he said.
'Large knife'
Another witness told the court that she had been passing by the cemetery afterwards and spotted a large knife on the ground near cars and alerted gardaí.
A knife with a long blade was shown to her. She said it looked familiar but she thought the handle of the blade had been blacker.
The case before Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring and a jury of 13 men and two women at the Central Criminal Court in Cork continues.
