Michael Varley is one of the few full time farmers in the area. On 14 October 2004, he dropped his two elder children to school and the youngest to a babysitter. He visited land he rents in Knock, before returning home to do some fencing.

Around 2pm, he was crossing the road, en route to his house, when he saw a car reverse into Padraig Nally's farmyard, 300 metres down the road. Varley didn't think much of it.

He went inside and rang the Department of Agriculture about a TB test for cattle.

While he was on the phone, he heard a car moving at speed outside. The car turned at his gate and went back whence it came. Some minutes later, Nally arrived at his door on foot.

"I'm in bother, " he said.

"They came again."

Not much happens in Headford, a town in north county Galway, six miles from Padraig Nally's farm. On the afternoon in question, Garda Peader Brick was standing outside the town's station. Around 2.20pm, he saw a Blue Opel Kadett approach at speed. As the car pulled up, he recognised the driver as Tom Ward, a traveller whom Brick had encountered previously over a motoring offence.

"He ran out of the car to me, " Brick told the Central Criminal Court. "He was very anxious. He said his father had been shot down the road. Then he got back into the car and I followed him in the direction of Cross."

When the convoy was within 300 metres of the Nally farm, Tom Ward pulled up.

He got out and told Garda Brick that he wasn't going any closer. "He wanted to get into the patrol car with me, " Brick said. "I opened the back door and let him in."

By then, Sergeant James Carroll had already arrived at the scene from Ballinrobe station. He approached the farm where he saw Nally and Varley standing at the side of the road. Varley indicated that Nally had shot somebody. The garda looked over the wall at the side of the road.

"There was the body of a man lying on his back, " he told the court. "He had one deep wound to his forehead. There was blood on his face. His trousers were down at his knees and his eyes were open.

He was lifeless." The garda then looked at Nally. "Mr Nally appeared calm to me. He had blood on his hands."

Carroll walked back to the patrol car where Tom Ward asked him what condition his father was in. The sergeant told him that he had a shotgun wound and had passed away.

According to Garda Brick, Carroll then placed his hand on Ward's shoulder, as the bereaved man began to cry.

At the opening of Padraig Nally's manslaughter trial last Monday, Judge Paul Carney told the jury he was empanelling that the case had "engendered a great deal of publicity, perhaps more than any other in the history of this court. It has also engendered extremely strong feelings."

In court, 62-year-old Nally sits beside his sister, Maureen.

Ward's widow is not in court, and neither are any of his 11 children, of whom 20-year-old Tom was the fourth eldest.

The case revolves around events that followed the Wards' visit to Nally's farm that afternoon. There are stong suggestions that the Traveller father and son were on a criminal enterprise. Prosecuting counsel Paul O'Higgins told the jury that "there is not a death penalty, so to speak, for burglary in this country."

The court also heard from Michael Varley that his neighbour was "demented with fear" at the time, following the theft of a chainsaw and other items in the recent past.

On Wednesday, Tom Ward denied that he and his father were on a criminal enterprise.

He said they were looking to buy a car, and do it up, as they had done with others. They called to a few houses that day. When they arrived at Nally's, Tom reversed the car into the farmyard.

He said his father went in to look for the owner. Then Nally appeared. He asked Tom Ward where his mate was.

Ward then indicated the back of the house, and says that Nally replied "He won't be coming out."

Ward then saw Nally go to a shed and emerge with a gun.

He denied that he was revving the car to warn his father that Nally was approaching. "I panicked when I heard the shot, " he told the court. "I took off."

At one point, when asked would he like to consult his statement, the witness told the court he couldn't read.

Tom Ward confirmed that his mother is pursuing a civil action against Nally on his behalf as well as her own.

In statements to Sergeant Carroll, Padraig Nally said that he cried after his sister left the previous Sunday night to return to her teaching job.

On the day in question, he recognised John Ward as a man who had called to his house previously. He was "going to give him a beating, but I panicked." He shot John Ward at his back door. Ward then lunged at him and there was a struggle. He was terrified that Tom Ward would attack him.

"I was on my own, there were two of them, " he told the garda. He pushed Ward to the ground and then got a stick he used to mix the dog's dinner, with which he beat the traveller.

"I couldn't live with it anymore, " he said. Ward had retreated to the road when Nally shot him for a second time. Afterwards, he threw the body over the wall at the side of the road.

On Friday, the fourth day of the trial, Judge Kevin O'Higgins told the jury of eight men and four women that Mr Nally had been taken ill the previous night and was now in hospital with a medical condition. The trial was adjourned until tomorrow morning.