The O'Reilly verdict was wrong

My gut instinct is that Joe O'Reilly murdered Rachel O'Reilly. That's the real problem with the verdict of the trial because I had the same feeling before the trial started.
Ever since the murder in October 2004 the newspapers, especially the tabloid newspapers, have run stories replete with the thinly concealed belief the Joe O'Reilly was the murderer. There must be grave suspicions that much of the information was passed to the press from within the gardai partly to pressurise Joe O'Reilly during the investigation.
The pivotal evidence in the trial was the mobile phone evidence which placed O'Reilly in the vicinity of his home at the time of the murder and proof that his relationship with Rachel had broken down.
And that's it. No proof whatsoever linking him with the crime scene. No witness or forensic evidence at all.
It's not good enough, you know. My guess is that the prosecution authorities took a chance even going to trial, given the flimsiness of the case. And I honestly don't believe there was enough evidence given in the courtroom to have proven 'beyond reasonable doubt' that he committed the murder.
In fact, it is questionable whether it was possible, given the pre-trial publicity, if a fair trial could have been organised in Ireland at all. If a jury is supposed to be representative of the general population then they would have absorbed a huge amount of information, innuendo and rumour about the case. Ok, so the judge warned them to only consider what they heard in court but it would not be humanly possible to forget or ignore what they had already heard.
The jury didn't come to a quick decision. We don't know what went on in the jury room but outside among the general public, at least to the section I talked to, two things were apparent. Firstly, that most people felt that Joe O'Reilly was guilty and secondly, people were unsure what way the jury would go.
Let's hope that justice was done. But let's acknowledge that a fair trial consists of a jury considering only what they have heard in court. I don't think that's what happened in the O'Reilly case and the verdict should have reflected the evidence.

Control freak opportunism

Regular readers will know that I am disgusted with the creeping authoritarianism of this state. In the wake of the O'Reilly verdict the government slyly lost no time in announcing its intention to bring mobile phones under its control. The idea was to capitalise on sympathy for Rachel O'Reilly to further extend the tentacles of state control.
Never mind that the mobile phone records of Joe O'Reilly and Robert Houlihan had been used to good effect without compulsory registration.
This government despises open systems. Without doubt they would like to abolish cash and open roads as well. In this brave new Ireland we're all potential criminals unless our records say different.