An Irish Story

The bachelor farmer is almost an iconic figure in Ireland's past, an image of isolation in a country exporting its people at an alarming rate.

They are still out there, the bachelor farmers.

They are still creating tragedies out of their lives.

Cecil Tomkins was just convicted of murdering his brother in a dispute over where their mother was to buried.

Neither brother ever married. They stayed on the farm, in County Wicklow, Spent their entire lives working the land, never dated, never met the right girl. They had mammy, after all, to take care of them. It was nearly impossible to meet a girl forty years ago, when Ireland was so poor and the girls left for jobs elsewhere and didn't want to live on an old farm.

Mrs. Tomkins left instructions on where she wanted to lie for all time. That spot was not next to her husband.

That gives you an idea of what sort of marriage she had. Maybe that was another reason why her sons didn't tie the knot.

So Cecil's brother put mammy in the ground next to da, where she didn't want to be, and it sparked a row that ended with Cecil shooting his brother dead.

Two years on, the trial is concluded and Cecil has been sentenced to life in prison.

He's already in prison, in a way.

The convicted murderer is suffering from Parkinson's disease, so he's imprisoned in a body that is failing him in every way. Hand in hand with Parkinson's is dementia, which may have played a role in the murder. Not enough to support an insanity defense, however.

Cecil Tomkins, gravely ill, mentally crumbling, is going to jail, where he will have to be put into a hospital wing. He belongs in a nursing home, but there is a shortage of beds and if one more body can be moved elsewhere, it's a bonus.

Does it make sense, to jail a man suffering with dementia?