Paul Williams: Pensioner Tom Niland likely expected to see a neighbour at the door. Instead he was beaten so badly he never recovered
Tom Niland (left) and John Irving. Irving has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of the Sligo man. His co-accused Francis Harman and John Clarke pleaded guilty to the same offence last weekThe brutal killing of a defenceless elderly man living alone in rural Ireland, after suffering a barbaric beating for the contents of his wallet, stands at the apogee in the hierarchy of what we can classify as pure evil.“Gentle giant” Tom Niland was a 73-year-old bachelor who had lived alone and in peace at his home on the main Sligo to Ballina road all his life.
