Following his subsequent trial and conviction for the 1942 murder of Garda Detective Sergeant Denis O'Brien, Kerins was hanged at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

At the age of 13, he won a Kerry County Council scholarship and completed his secondary education at the Green Christian Brothers and the Jeffers Institute.

[2] At the time, the Fianna Fáil Government of Éamon de Valera was determined to preserve Irish neutrality during World War II.

"[3] During this time many IRA men who were captured by the Gardaí were interned for the duration of the war by the Irish Army in the Curragh Camp, County Kildare.

[6] According to historian Tim Pat Coogan, "The shooting greatly increased public feeling against the I.R.A., particularly as the murder was carried out in full view of his wife.

[8] On 1 July 1943, Charlie Kerins, alongside fellow militants Archie Doyle and Jackie Griffith arrived on bikes at the gates of Player Wills factory on the South Circular Road, Dublin.

[9] Travel author Dervla Murphy recounts in her book on Northern Ireland, A Place Apart that Kerins stayed at her family's County Waterford home for two weeks while he was on the run, having given his name as Pat Carney.

[13] At a trial before the Special Criminal Court in Collins Barracks, Dublin, Kerins was formally charged on 2 October 1944 for the "shooting at Rathfarnham of Detective Dinny O’Brien".

"[15] Despite legal moves initiated by Seán MacBride, public protests, and parliamentary intervention by TDs from Clann na Talmhan, Labour, and Independent Oliver J. Flanagan[16][17][18] in Leinster House, the Fianna Fáil government of Éamon de Valera refused to issue a reprieve.

On 1 December 1944 in Mountjoy Prison, Kerins was hanged by British chief executioner Albert Pierrepoint, who was employed by the Irish Government for such occasions.