Padraig Nally, the Co Mayo farmer jailed last year for shooting dead an unarmed Traveller on his farm, received over 3,000 Christmas cards and letters to his prison cell and home, it emerged today.
Padraig Nally: received 3,000 messages of support at Christmas
The 61-year-old bachelor, was jailed for six years in November for the manslaughter of John 'Frog' Ward in October 2004.
Well-wishers from Ireland as well as Britain, Germany, Australia, and America sent Christmas cards, Mass bouquets and prayer booklets as well as hand-written letters of support.
The mail arrived to Nally's cell in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise as well as to his south Co Mayo farmhouse.
The Padraig Nally Support Group today thanked the thousands of supporters on behalf of Mr Nally.
A spokesman said: "We received over 3,000 separate items of post between everything. We thank everybody from the bottom of our hearts.
"We were further heartened by the level of support expressed in the correspondence in relation to the injustice done to Padraig by the severity of the sentence handed down to him."
The support group made an appeal in early December asking people to show their support by sending cards to the Midlands Prison.
A bank account has been put in place for the day-to-day running of Nally's farm and home.
A national rally to protest at Nally's sentence planned for Athlone in November was cancelled because the organisers believed it had developed into an anti-Traveller event.
Sentencing Nally in November, Mr Justice Paul Carney told the Central Criminal Court that it was the most difficult case he had to deal with in more than 14 years on the bench.
The trial heard Nally shot Mr Ward twice and also beat him 20 times with a stick during the incident on his property in Cross in October 2004. The second and fatal shot was fired after Mr Ward had left Nally's farmyard in and was limping down the road in retreat.
Nally claimed in his defence that he believed his life was under threat as there were two break-ins at his property in the previous 18 months and he was growing increasingly paranoid and fearful.
Last month, the Central Criminal Court refused leave to appeal against the conviction.