By Paddy Clancy

THE family of the traveler killed by farmer Padraig Nally, who was freed from jail last week, has said he should be retried on a charge of murder.

The case divided the nation two years ago when John “Frog” Ward was shot dead on bachelor Nally’s farm where he lived alone in Co. Mayo.

Nally had argued that, after months of living in fear of raiders at a time when there were regular attacks on elderly people living alone, he shot trespasser Ward because he believed the traveler intended robbing and possibly harming him.

Traveler is the politically correct description in Ireland of what were once known as itinerants.

Nally was jailed for six years on a charge of manslaughter when his trial heard him argue that he had been provoked but didn’t intend to cause death.

There was a national furor. with his supporters claiming he should not have been convicted, and travelers’ rights groups arguing that there was a biased media frenzy bordering on racism against Ward.

Ward’s brother Jimmy, who lives in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, hit out after Nally was freed on bail on the order of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

It quashed the conviction of the farmer and his six-year sentence for the shooting. The three-judge court ordered a retrial of a manslaughter charge.

The judges said the jury at the original trial should have been allowed to consider the full defense of self-defense.

Nally’s legal team had argued that the trial judge Mr. Justice Paul Carney had erred in law by not allowing the jury to consider self-defense and by not allowing them to return an acquittal verdict.

At his home this week Jimmy Ward said, “We’re all very disappointed that he has got out. We believe he should have been given a life sentence in the first instance.”

He said the farmer should be retried on a charge of murder which carries an automatic sentence of life in jail.

“If a retrial means we have to go through the whole process again then we have to go through it again,” said Jimmy.

John Ward's tearful sister Nora said the whole family was very disappointed but remained "confident that justice will be served.”

"My brother left behind 11 children. They have been left with no father. John can't come back,” she said.

She added that the second anniversary of his death was last Saturday. "It brings back a lot of memories for us,” she said.

Donegal Travelers Project manager Siobhan McLaughlin, stressing that members of the extended family are living in Co. Donegal, urged sensitivity.

“We also ask that the media and the local community here in Donegal consider the situation of the victim’s family and that of the wider traveler community. What happened was a terrible incident which resulted in the death of a man and the jailing of another. However, it should not have been used to make judgments on the traveler community as a whole,” she said.