BY OLIVIA KELLEHER 

A MAN has been found guilty of the murder of 61-year-old Michael Foley who was found in a pool of blood at his Macroom home, having suffered 11 stab wounds and 19 slash wounds.

Daniel Hourigan (33), from Farranree in Cork city, was remanded in custody for sentencing on July 30th after a jury of six men and six women reached their unanimous guilty verdict on Monday. 

Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford excused the jury from further jury service for a period of five years. 

Mr Foley, a native of Scartagh in Clonakilty, lived in a Housing First property at Annville, Barrett’s Place in Macroom. He was found dead by care worker, Ciara Harmon, on February 6th, 2024. She raised the alarm when she found Foley dead in a pool of congealed blood in the kitchen/living room area of his home.

Giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court trial Hourigan said Mr Foley was a ‘relative through marriage’ who had given him shelter when he was homeless in 2023. He stayed with him for six weeks that year. 

Hourigan said that he had gone to the home of Foley in Macroom on January 31st, 2024 with his then partner Linda O’Flynn. The couple stayed overnight. He told the jury that he woke during the night to the ‘sound of the place being broken up’. He said he got out of bed and went to the door of the kitchen where he saw his ‘freaking out’ partner.

Hourigan said that Ms O’Flynn refused to call the emergency services. He insisted that he had ‘no part or role in Michael’s murder’. Hourigan also told the jury that he had asked Mr Foley to be the godfather of his unborn child. He claimed that at the time he thought Ms O’Flynn was pregnant. 

He told the jury that Ms O’Flynn murdered Foley and that he had given gardaí differing accounts of what occurred in to protect her. Ms O’Flynn was not a party to the trial.

Prosecuting counsel Jane Hyland put it to Hourigan that he had told gardaí a number of different versions of what had occurred in the home of the deceased. She said the blows and wounds inflicted on the victim were made by a person ‘with strength’.

In her closing speech to the jury Ms Hyland said that Hourigan told gardaí several lies in his interviews in order to protect himself — not Linda O’Flynn. She said that the deceased was a kind man who offered hospitality to people who were experiencing difficulty in life. 

Ms Hyland said that when Hourigan left Michael Foley’s home ‘he is carrying a black plastic bag containing the murder weapon with Michael Foley’s blood on it. We can see Mr Hourigan (on CCTV). 

‘He put that bag on the bus (to Cork city). When the bus stopped on Western Road, Mr Hourigan went to the back of the bus, he took other things out and left the black bag on the bus.’

Ms Hyland stated that Hourigan’s palm print was found on the architrave of a door at Mr Foley’s house. She said that Hourigan had no explanation as to why his hand print was detected in the blood of Foley on the architrave of the door.

Dr Margaret Bolster, assistant state pathologist, carried out a post mortem on the deceased. She said one of the stab wounds pierced Mr Foley’s right lung causing it to collapse, whilst one of the slash wounds penetrated his skull leading to extreme blood loss. Dr Bolster said that slash and stab wounds led to extensive haemorrhage and death.