A man accused of murdering his parents told a jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday he was on a mission to kill, relayed to him telepathically by the IRA.
Mr Martin Doherty (27), of St Lelia Street, Limerick, has denied that on September 21st, 1998, he murdered retired Garda William Doherty (58) and his wife, Teresa (50), at their home in Monadreen, Thurles.
Mr Doherty said in the weeks leading up to his parents' deaths he had been under intense pressure. He began receiving messages through the body language of other people and started believing to be true images he thought were flashbacks of abuse.
A person "touching their nose would be lying, in that `it stinks'," and a person sniffing loudly meant the same thing but doing both at once was a double negative and would be the truth.
Mr Doherty said he believed the world was made up of good and bad people and the "poor and downtrodden" were good. Police, judges, people in power and others were bad.
He said at the time he believed the IRA were "idealistic freedom fighters" and he conceded that this was not a view he generally held. Mr Doherty said he had gone to the Garda several weeks before the killings to report child abuse perpetrated by his father, which he now believed not to be true.
Asked by Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, had his father "in fact ever sexually abused you", he replied: "No, but I thought I had recalled it during meditation." He said he began to believe the IRA wanted him to join up, to "strike a blow for the good people".
"I discovered that the IRA wanted me to do something, to do a mission. To kill my dad. I had signals, signs."
He said he had not decided to kill his mother until the day of her death when he purchased some rolling tobacco in the train station while waiting for a train to travel to the family home. The tobacco brand name was "Duma", which had the significance for him to "do ma, do kill your mother," he said.
Asked by counsel how he reacted to that, he said: "I said I would in my head. I thought there was a telepathic reaction."
The trial before Mr Justice Murphy continues today.