President grants rare pardon to wrongfully convicted Kerry men executed in 1883

Despite not matching the descriptions of the two men who shot Browne and the unreliable and contradictory accounts of a neighbour, Poff and Barrett were found guilty after being tried twice before special juries in Cork.

The pardon comes after extensive research from a UCD academic into the case, who found that a 21st-century court could not have convicted the pair on the evidence presented in 1882.

This is just the fourth time a posthumous presidential pardon has been awarded in the history of the Irish State.

The killing of Browne came in the wake of the notorious Phoenix Park murders, which had prompted legislation to clamp down on crimes like “treason, murder, arson, attacks on dwelling-houses, and crimes of aggravated violence.”

Against the backdrop of the Land War and agrarian violence, Castleisland in Kerry had been experiencing a great deal of unrest during the 1880s.

When Thomas Browne was shot several times from behind by two men in dark coats on October 3, 1882, both Poff and Barrett were arrested, having been known to be in the vicinity at the time.

A neighbour said the pair had entered the field where Browne was shot, but their testimony changed as the case progressed, and they could not be regarded as reliable witnesses. Despite petitions for mercy to the Lord Lieutenant, the men were executed just a few months later.

Earlier this year, the government recommended to President Higgins that the pair be pardoned based on a detailed report from Dr Niamh Howlin, an expert in 19th-century trial law and an Associate Professor in the Sutherland School of Law at UCD.

Dr Howlin found several factors around the investigation and procedures surrounding the trial that led her to believe the convictions were unsafe.

These included a “packed” jury, conflicting witness testimony, no motive for the crime, and neglect of other lines of inquiry in the case.

“They were convicted on the basis of evidence which was both circumstantial and weak,” Dr Howlin said.

“The trials and convictions 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 convictions unsafe.” 

In issuing the pardon Wednesday, President Higgins said the bar to issue one was high as it had to be clear there was a “travesty of justice” that wouldn’t meet evidential standards now and also be satisfied it was “exceptional even to what was prevailing at the time.” 

He said it was from this house that the Lord Lieutenant received a letter urging the execution of the men not to proceed.

“It’s a pleasure to have representatives of both of these people here,” he said. “It is symbolic that from this house, I sign this posthumous pardon.

“We may not be able to undo what took place... the people of Kerry remember. But we can lift the shadow.”