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Ireland
March 14th 1846.
On Tuesday night last, a man named Daniel Berachree, who resides in a
mountain district near Newport, called the Copper Mines?, retired to bed at
an early hour, which was his usual custom, and was followed by his wife and
a young man named Walsh, a servant of his, who lay with him on each side. In
the morning an alarm was given by the wife, who says she saw four men
quitting the house, as she awoke, and found her husband,s skull fractured,
and a mark of a wound over one of his eyes. The outrage upon this man is at
present involved in much mystery. He was rather advanced in years, and the
wife is young and well looking. The window of the room was fastened inside
by a boy, a son of Berachree, with a hatchet, and on examination the next
morning, the hatchet was found in the house with blood and hair upon it.
The unfortunate man still lives, but there are no hopes of his recovery.
On Tuesday 5th as a man of the name of England was returning from the market
of Roscrea, he was followed by three or four fellows who knocked him down
with a stone. England recovered and ran for home, but they followed him,
and knocked him down again, he again got up, and ran to a house on the
roadside , but was not admitted, he was again knocked down, and pelted with
stones in a most savage manner. One of his assailants, more fiendish than
the rest, gave him a chop of a spade in the back of the neck, they then
decamped, leaving him for dead. England lies in a precarious state.
October 4th 1846
The Times-From the Tipperary Vindicator 10-4-1846.
Emigration
The Tipperary Vindicator truly observes,-
"Within our remembrance, the tide of emigration has been seldom, if ever, so
strong as at the present moment. From the ports of Cork, Waterford,
Limerick, Dublin, Sligo, Galway etc. hundreds of the population are quitting
their native shores, determined to trust their fortunes to the protection of
Providence in other and more favoured climes. From the North Riding of
Tipperary, and more particularly from the baronies of Upper and Lower
Ormond, the number of emigrants is extraordinary. Nearly all of them are the
more comfortable class of farmers; at least, of those who have not felt the
pressure of distress. From Borrisokane and its neighbourhood hundreds have
gone out, or are preparing to leave. From Ballygibbon Parish, we learn no
less than 100 persons have already gone. From Derry-Castle estate we are
informed that numbers of the poor cottier teanantry on that property have
left by way of Limerick. The emigration returns, we are certain of, this
spring will announce a far more numerous quantity of emigrants that have
been returned for some years.
The Vindicator, in another column, has the following account of the process
of "emigration" on the compulsory system:-
"One of the most melancholy exhibitions ever witnessed was presented in
Limerick and Nenagh on Monday-the departure, under a strong escort of the
13th Light Dragoons, the 72d Highlanders, and a formidable body of police,
of the convicts tried at the last assizes and sentenced to transportation,
some for 7 years each, some for the period of their natural lives. No less
than 30 convicts entered Nenagh from Limerick, some of them we believe were
from Tralee and Ennis, and to this number was added those who were left
under sentence in Nenagh Gaol, and who amounted to 9 or 10. All these
convicts were either handcuffed, or chained one to the other, or chained
down on the cars on which they were placed, with the strong guard above
mentioned around them, and nothing could present a more degraded, a more
wretched, or a more pitiable appearance, as they were driven off on their
way to the Hulks at Dublin, where, in the course of a few days, they are to
take their departure, some for life, never more to see friends, relatives or
families-those in whom their affections are centered. The exhibition they
made was well calculated to impart a terrible lesson to all who indulge in
crime, and suffer themselves to become the victims of the spy and informer.
Ireland-The Times-From the Tipperary Vindicator 10-4-1846.
Mr. O'Connell and his Quondam "Friend".
Mr. Ryan of Liscahill-house whose name has been frequently mentioned in the
debates upon the Irish Coercion Bill, has addressed a long letter to the
Home-Secretary, praying that a strict inquiry may be instituted into all the
outrages committed on him (Mr. Ryan) as stated in his memorable letter to
his friend the "Liberator"
"This" he says, "will not be as difficult as it may appear at first view;
because out of ten malicious injuries, seven presentments only were sough
for; and each and every one of them passed, their merits being discussed on
oath before the magistrates and Cesspayers at Road Sessions, and again by
the grand jury-and I insist they passed solely on my own evidence. The last
presentment I obtained was for the breaking of my window at Liscahill in
1845. This must be the attack alluded to by Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Maher.
This latter gentleman was on the grand jury, when 6s was awarded me for this
malicious injury, which he calls an unfounded attack, and which Mr. O'Connell
calls a fabrication. My windows were broken before and the magistrates sent
Delahenty, who was caught in the act, to prison for two months. There was no
presentment sought in this case, nor in two other cases, because the amount
of compensation was not worth looking for. This disposes of the then
malicious injuries; now as to the two attempts on my life. The first attempt
on my life was by a man named Delaney, who struck me a blow on the side of
my face with a stone. Doctor Leahy of Templemore , who dressed the wound,
can prove if I were hit a half inch higher on the temple that my life would
have been lost. The second attempt on my life, and indeed the lives of my
family, was the monstrous murderous attack on the night of the 7th of last
month, as stated in my letter to Mr. O'Connell. I know not, I care not, what
the report of any stipendiary magistrate may be. I will prove beyond the
possibility of contradiction, and by the most unsullied testimony, that
every syllable in my letter was perfectly true and correct; and I will show
that, instead of exaggerating, I have not recounted other outrages which I
had suffered. As to Mr. O'Connells allusion to my insolvency, it was a mean,
paltry, pitiful device, which no man in his station ought to have resorted
to, It was a most miserable subterfuge by which to attempt to rebut sound
arguments, or controvert stubborn facts quite beneath the dignity of a great
statesman. I could with much more propriety call on him to account for the
enormous sums which we have paid him in the shape of the Repeal rent, and
which account he has repeatedly refused to give the public. In my letter I
did not say one disrespectful word to him. Whether the usages of the house
allow it or not, I request that my schedule will be produced. By it will be
proved the very reverse of what he states. It will show that one of the most
improving tenants in Ireland was sacrificed by oppressive landlords. I laid
out on farms over 2000s in building, manuring, planting, draining, and
permanent improvements, and besides losing all these improvements without
one shilling remuneration, the crops on the lands were valued at three times
the rent due to the landlords. Yes, that schedule will show the small sums
that were due to other creditors-and the receipts of those creditors will
show that I have struggled to pay them even after my discharge as an
insolvent. It will also show that what Mr. O'Connell states is not true,
when he asserts that Mr. Maher was a sufferer. Neither he nor his
predecessor suffered one shilling up to the day of my discharge-nor up to
the present moment. And when it is thrown on me by Mr. Maher to relate the
part he acted in the melancholy drama of my unexampled misfortunes, I
shudder lest the revealing of the truth may be of further injury to my
already grievously afflicted family".
Ireland-The Times-From the Tipperary Vindicator 10-4-1846.
>From our Correspondent.
The Evictions at Gurtmore.
The Tipperary Vindicator of yesterday gives a circumstantial account of the
eviction of tenantry on the lands of Gurtmore, the property of Mr. Tuthill,
and which was briefly noticed in a recent number of that journal. As in all
such cases, it is more than probable that the subjoined detail will be met
by a counter statement in justification of the measures adopted on the
occasion; and, if so, it is not likely that the aggrieved party will be
denied the benefit of your circulation.
"We witnessed on Friday morning one of the most melancholy spectacles that
ever fell to the lot of feeling humanity to behold, namely, the casting out
of nine wretched families from their miserable hovels on the bleak roadside
at Gurtmore. It was a wet and stormy morning, when a detachment of Her
Majesty's 72d Highlanders, under Captain Pollard, who were marched ten miles
on this unsoldier like duty, drew up on the public road within a few hundred
yards of the cabin of Mara, the first of these poor tenants on whom was
executed the law of ejectment. A strong body of police was posted opposite
the house, and more about the door, to keep the passage clear for the
landlord, the sub-sheriff and the bailiffs. It was disgusting to observe
with what recklessness the bailiffs dragged out every little article of
furniture which belonged to the wretched inmates of each hovel they visited,
and in some instances, threw out the miserable remnant of rotten potatoes
which they had for subsistance. We have been informed that the sheriff, on
more occasions then one (when we were not near him), reproved these fellows
for misconduct in discharge of their office, and checked their wanton
impropriety. Both the military and police comported themselves on this
occasion with the bearing of men who knew and felt that they were performing
a disagreeable duty, but the soldiery openly expressed their repugnance to
this mode of campaigning. 'I have been in the army (said a veteran) for 27
years; this is the second time I have been called out on this duty, and I
hope it will be the last, for, by God, I would rather face an enemy than
withness what I have seen today'. Pat Clancy was the second man
dispossessed, and who showed our reported a receipt for a half years rent up
to November. The commanding officer of the 72d met him at the rear of his
house, and expressed deep sympathy for him as well as for his fellow
sufferers. Another officer said to Clancy's son, 'Well, my boy, where will
you sleep tonight?. 'I don't know Sir' said the boy. The brave humane man
put his hand in his purse and gave the boy a shilling to procure lodging. A
remarkable circumstance occurred at the house of Clancy. One of the Bailiffs
was dragging a piece of frail furniture with unnecessary force out of the
house-Clancy's wife caught him by the throat with her left hand, while in
her right hand she brandished a naked knife until she made the ruffian
relinquish his hold of the old table; meanwhile, the military and police
laughed heartily, and not a man among them showed the slightest disposition
to come to his rescue. The third man ejected was Fennell, next door to
Clancy. They were in the act of carrying out a cupboard from his kitchen,
when he showed what was rent in bank-notes, which he had a minute before
offered to his landlord and which was refused. A bailiff was nailing a hasp
to one of the doors, when a woman, with a crying infant in her arms -'That
is mightn't be long till I hear the sound of the nail in your coffin, you
villian:, what she meant I can't say but the campaign of the day had a
ludicrous termination. Though ball cartridges were not flying, the women, to
the great amusement of the force, both civil and military treated the
bailiffs to rotten potatoes and eggs of the same quality. One fellow with an
oilskin cap and a hangman visage, smeared all over, appealed to the sheriff
for protection, and told his honour that was the third time he had been
pelted at by the same woman on that day.When the bailiffs were send to drive
the cattle of Herberts land, they were followed by a crowd of women and
boys, who saluted them with missiles of all sorts, and it was not until one
woman tried 'what virtue was in stones' that the police interfered to
protect the detested slaves of the law. It was upon the whole, fortunate,
that the country people did not expect this campaigning visit, and thus the
proceedings of the day passed off without bloodshed or riot.
No Date
Committed to Nenagh Goal, by John G. Jones, R.M., Philip Maher for the
murder of Thomas Shanahan, process-server, near Borrisoleigh, on the 21st
Oct. 1844; also for the robbery of Quinlan and Cormack, near Annameadle:
Michael Meares of Fantane. and Philip Maher for the attack on Hogan, near
Bawn, when John Hogan was severely injured from a gunshot wound; Edmond
Ryan, John Conway, Thomas Dwyer, and John Kennedy , of Bawn, the latter
being a respectable farmers son, and the person who bought the party to
Hogan's house. This gang was connected with several other persons who were
engaged to go in all directions in the North Riding of Tipperary committing
outrage and murder. Since these arrests several bad characters have
absconded. There is most satisfactory evidence against the people arrested
and the breaking up of such a gang is looked on as one of the most important
events that could have occurred to this country. One of the gang has turned
approver, and it is thought that the perpetrators of all the outrages will
be shortly brought to justice.
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