Seoighe was confused and upset that he was to be hanged, but only spoke Irish. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, John Spencer bribed three eyewitnesses, and the Crown Prosecutor withheld key evidence. The media characterised the suspects as savages, with The Spectator paper describing: "a class of peasants who are scarcely civilised beings, and approach far nearer to savages than any other white men ... and in the discipline of life no higher than Maories or other Polynesians."

Pat Casey and Pat Joyce were also executed. Seoighe was a father of five children.