Month: January 2022

A Barrister’s Mysterious Death, 1844

‘Mist on Moylussa Mountain, Lough Derg,’ by Grace Mary Trench, via Whytes

From the Tipperary Vindicator, October 1844:

” J WALSH ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW

It is with feelings of intense sorrow we announce the death of this gentleman. His loss is a public one. It is one which, we fear, it will be difficult to supply. The detail of his melancholy fate – having met death by drowning on Saturday – appear in another part of our columns. The learned and lamented gentleman had not been long attached to this circuit; but, short as was the time, we never read more

Midlands Circuit Judge Throws Himself Between Combatants to End Free Fight in Boyle Court, 1907

The old Courthouse, Boyle, Co Roscommon, via Buildings of Ireland

From the Evening Herald, 15 October 1907:

“While his Honor County Court Judge Wakely was revising the voters’ list in Boyle Courthouse yesterday a wild scene of tumult took place. George W Tully was after being examined in support of his claim for a vote, and on leaving the witness table he deliberately struck Arthur O’Connor two blows on the face with his clenched fist. Mr O’Connor retaliated, and a wild scene of riot ensued. The audience was composed of the supporters read more

British Soldiers Routed by Dublin Amazons, 1871

British soldiers in Dublin, from John F Finerty’s ‘Ireland in Pictures,‘ 1898

From the Freeman’s Journal, via the Western Mail, 11 September 1871:

“During Tuesday last the locality of Pill Lane was considerably excited by a collision which occurred between a party of military and a number of the females gathered in the neighbourhood of the police courts. A soldier, absent without leave, was supposed to live in a house in the lane, and a picket of his regiment went in search of the fugitive. They attempted to enter the house, but were confronted by several read more

More on the Milltown Outrage, 1861

I previously posted a short video about the Milltown Outrage, which occurred in Dublin in September 1861. It involved an attack on a 19-year-old governess by the cab driver engaged to bring her home from Sackville (now O’Connell) Street to Rathgar.

At the end of the video it was disclosed that an arrest had subsequently been made. The name of the man arrested was John Curran. Unusually for the perpetrator in a 19th century Dublin criminal read more

Fawn-Smuggling on Inns Quay, 1838

From the Freeman’s Journal, 30 June 1838:

“A man named John Cowan was brought before the magistrates on a charge of having stolen a fawn in the Phoenix Park, on the preceding day.

Police Constable 97D stated that he met the prisoner on the King’s Inns Quay, with a suspicious looking bundle under his coat; on searching him he found a live fawn concealed on his person.

The prisoner said he was returning from the review, with a number of other persons, and saw the fawn lying beneath read more