Career
Although he and McCormack admitted constructing the bomb, which was intended to be used to destroy a power station, they claimed not to be involved in planting the bomb. Seán MacBride, a former Chief-of-Staff for the Ireland Republican Army and Irish barrister, attempted to secure their release claiming they were being illegally held without a writ of habeas corpus. However, charged with murder along with McCormack, Brigid O"Hara, Joseph and Mary Hewitt on December 12, all five pleaded not guilty before the court at Birmingham Assizes (Brigid O"Hara issued statements between August 28 and September 4 to Scotland Yard and Birmingham police denying any knowledge of the bombings and later provided evidence for the prosecution).
Foundation guilty of murder on December 15, Barnes and Richards were hanged at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham on February 7, 1940.
Their remains were flown to Dublin on July 4. Their trial and execution resulted in a public outcry in Ireland against Neville Chamberlain and the British Government as Peadar O"Donnell and other prominent Irish writers signed a petition campaigning for leniency towards the condemned mentor
