Kerry men wrongly hanged in 1882 to be formally pardoned by President on Wednesday

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins will sign a Presidential Pardon for Sylvester Poff and James Barrett at an event in Áras an Uachtaráin on Wednesday, October 30.

Poff and Barrett, both from Co Kerry, were convicted of the murder of Thomas Browne in October 1882 and were both executed in January 1883.

The Office of the President says that in line with articles 13.6 and 13.9 of the Irish Constitution, the pardon has been granted following a recommendation by Government.

The recommendation, handed down in April, took account of a report by Dr. Niamh Howlin which found that the nature and extent of the evidence against Poff and Barrett could not safely support a guilty verdict.

Wednesday's event in Áras an Uachtaráin will mark only the fourth time a presidential pardon has been awarded in Ireland.

Speaking with RTÉ News, Poff's great-grandsons, Tomo Burke, 89, and his cousin Mike Sugrue, aged in his 70s, expressed their relief that justice is finally being delivered for their ancestor.

"It means a pile to me because no matter how much we believed they were innocent, the fact they were found guilty and they were hanged for it," Sugrue told RTÉ News.

"There wasn’t a doubt in our minds but in other people’s minds, now they’re completely exonerated.

"The trial was a complete joke. There wasn’t a shred of evidence against them."

Burke described to RTÉ News how his grandmother Ellen Poff dealt with her father’s execution.

"She felt, at least I felt, that she had a monkey on her back - the fact that her father was hanged and she felt kind of unsure of where she was going," Burke said.

"She never encouraged our family, and there was 12 of the family there, to get involved - her attitude always was: 'Let the dead rest.’"

The 'let the dead rest' approach held for a long time, at least until Michael O'Donoghue, a local historian from Castleisland in Co Kerry, discovered the story of Poff and Barrett while in Tralee Library.

O'Donoghue died in 2008 and, according to RTÉ News, his papers were placed in storage until 2014, when Johnny Roche and Janet Murphy of the Castleisland District Heritage Group took on his work, developed the research, and realized a pardon was a real possibility.

Details of the Poff and Barrett case, according to Ireland's Department of Justice

The 1880s in Ireland brought frequent agitation for land reform, which often developed into agrarian violence, with outrages pertaining to matters such as landlords, evictions, rent strikes, and boycotts, known as the Land War.

In May 1882, the murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the Chief Secretary, and his Under Secretary, T.H. Burke were carried out in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. Referred to as the Phoenix Park Murders, they were the catalyst for the legislative response to the growing agrarian unrest.

The Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act 1882 (1882 Act) was a piece of coercive legislation passed in July 1882 in the aftermath of the Phoenix Park murders to clamp down on crimes such as “treason, murder, arson, attacks on dwelling-houses and crimes of aggravated violence.” Co Kerry and the area around Castleisland in particular, was experiencing a great deal of unrest and violence during this period.

On October 3, 1882, Thomas Browne was murdered while working in one of his fields in Dromulton, near Scartaglin in Co Kerry. Two men in dark coats, seen from behind, shot him several times.

Sylvester Poff and James Barrett, who did not match the descriptions of the assailants, were known to be in the vicinity at the time. The two men were arrested following a statement by a neighbour that they had seen them enter the field where Browne was shot.

The prosecution case largely rested on the evidence of a neighbour, whose story changed as the case progressed and who could not be regarded as a reliable witness. Poff and Barrett were tried twice before special juries in Cork for the murder of Browne after the jury in the first trial failed to reach agreement on a verdict.

Poff and Barrett were convicted of the murder of Browne in December 1882 and, despite petitions for mercy to the Lord Lieutenant, they were hanged in Tralee Gaol in January 1883.

Expert report

Dr. Niamh Howlin, an expert in 19th Century trial law and an Associate Professor in the Sutherland School of Law, UCD, was engaged by the Department of Justice to undertake an independent external review of the case and to advise upon the safety of the conviction or otherwise, with clear reference to the prevailing standards at the time.

Dr. Howlin's examination concluded that a number of factors, including in the investigation and procedures around the trial, led her to form the opinion that Poff's and Barrett's convictions were unsafe. These factors included: a ‘packed jury,' evidential deficiencies (including conflicting witness testimony), no motive, and that other lines of enquiry appear to have been neglected during the investigation and trial.

In addition, the report found that there was no direct evidence against Poff and Barrett, with the case resting on the circumstantial and contradictory evidence of one witness.

Dr. Howlin concluded her report by stating: "A twenty-first century criminal court would not convict Poff and Barrett on the basis of the evidence which was presented by the Crown in 1882. The convictions were also inconsistent with the legal standards of the period.

“They were convicted on the basis of evidence which was both circumstantial and weak. The trials and conviction of Poff and Barrett included legal and procedural deficiencies which were ‘so inconsistent with the legal standards of the period and so objectively unsatisfactory and unfair, that they render the conviction unsafe.”