Charlie Kerins.
KERRY County Council are to write to the Minister for Justice, to ask that Charlie Kerins’ conviction for the murder of a Detective Sergeant 70 years ago, be reviewed.
Sinn Fein Cllr Pa Daly made the proposal at last week’s meeting of the Tralee Municipal District of Kerry County Council.
There was no objection to the proposal so the Council will write to Minister Frances Fitzgerald to ask her to review the case.
Charlie Kerins was just 26 years old when he was hanged in Mountjoy Prison in 1944 after being convicted of the murder of Detective Sergeant Dennis O’Brien.
On the morning of September 9, 1942, Detective Sergeant O’Brien was leaving his home in Ballyboden, Dublin when he was shot with submachine guns.
O’Brien was an Anti-Treaty veteran of the Irish Civil War, who had enlisted in the Garda Síochána in 1933.
He was one of the most prominent members of the Special Branch Division, which had its headquarters at Dublin Castle.
Kerins was the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army at the time of the killing. After spending two years on the run he was captured by the Gardaí in 1944.
