The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-29 00:00:00

THE XAYO CONSPIRACY TRIAL.

The second trial of the persons charged with being
implicated in what has been known as the Mayo con-
spiracy began on Tuesday at the Cork Assizes, before
Mr. Jastice Lawson and a special jury, summoned
under the Crimes Act. It is already a matter of
record -that the venue in this case was changed from
the county Mayo to the city of Cork for the purpose
of securing a fair and an impartial trial. Seven persons
accused of being concerned in the plot were tried at
the Munster Winter Assizes, and, after a trial lasting
a week, one of the traversers named Matthew Halloran
was acquiited and the jury discharged with regard to the
remaining six. These men were arrainged to-day, the
technical charge against them being one of conspiracy
to murder James H. Scott and William Wills. They
pleaded "Not guilty," and their defence has been
entrusted to Dr. Webb, Q.C., and others. The
Crown is represented by the same counsel who prose-
cuted on the previous occasion—namely. the Attorney-
General, Mr. P. O'Brien, QC., Mr. Wall, and Mr.
Adams, instructed by Mr. Murphy, Crown Solicitor.
The special panel was called over upon fines of £2O,
and about 130 jurors answered out of the panel of
200. When the prisoners were put forward and the
police endeavoured to marshal them, it was observed
that each man took the seat in the dock which he had
occupied during the trial at the Winter Assizes. The
Attorney-General asked to have the jury sworn,
when Dr. Webb challenged the array of the special
jurors on the ground that two of the jurors had died,
so that it was proposed to select a jury to try the
case out of a number different from that which was
provided by the Crimes Act. After a long argument,
his lordship overruled the challenge.
The Attorney-General then proceeded to test the
case, and said he might tell them at the outset that
this was not one mere isolated conspiracy to murder.
The case the Crown would present was that these per-
sons entered into and formed a conspiracy, having for
its object a general wholesale commission of crime
and outrage. He then described the society formed
in the county Mayo to bring about a subversion of the
established order of things, and to "keep down
tyranny" by shooting and the commission of outrage.
This society was of Fenian origin, and the principal in
the conspiracy was the prisoner Patrick William
Nally, the centre for the county Mayo, and under him
was acting M'Cauley on the barony of Tirawley,
in that county. The learned gentleman then
described the operations of the conspiracy up to
August, 1881, and related the circumstances under
which the informer Coleman was forced to enter the
society and to obey its orders. Through him the police
obtained information, and were thus able to protect
many persons who were marked out for outrage. After
1881 the commission of outrages by the society began,
and counsel traced the movements of the prisoners,
especially those of Nally, in the nefarious work. The
Attorney-General then described the attempts made on
the lives of the persons named in that indictment, and
the plot for the assassination of William Willis, the
managing steward of Miss Gardiner. To the communi-
cations of Coleman to Mr. Ball, the sub-inspector, that
gentleman owed his life. The killing of Mr. James
Ilawkshaw Scott was plotted and was very near
succeeding. Mr. Scott was a land agent, residing in
the neighbourhood of Ballina, and a brother named
George Scott, who was also one of the persons upon
whom an attempt to murder was made. About the
month of March, 1882, the prisoner M'Cawley told
Coleman that James Scott was to be murdered, lie
told him that he was going into Killala, where
arrangements were to be made for his murder. The
Attorney-General next detailed the circumstances of
the attempted murder of Mr. George Hawkshaw
Scott, of Michael Leonard, Constable Batty, Thomas
Ruane, Joseph Hogan, and John Valentine Knox,
and the systematic and heartless way in which the
prisoners sought to accomplish the crimes.
Andrew Coleman was the first witness called, and
described his connection with the society, and the
arrangements made by Nally to procure revolvers. A
meeting of centres was held at Kettala in reference
to James Scott, and when M'Cauley returned from the
meeting he told witness that Mr. Scott was to be shot,
witness was to take part in the shooting, and was to
fire the first shot from a double-barrelled gun. There
were to be two others with him, who were to be
armed with revolvers. Mr. Scott was not shot, as the
place was too near the village. A man named Leonard
was to he shot because he prosecuted Daly for cutting
turf, and it was arranged to have the deed carried out
as Leonard was going to mass, but the arrangement
failed, and M'Cauley said it was lucky as there were
policemen lying in wait near the spot. A Mr. Knox
was to be shot because he had had a lawsuit with
two of his tenants. It was intended to poison Con-
stable Batty at the Killala Regatta, but that having
failed an infernal machine was to be made by means
of a box and explosives. The constable was to be in-
formed that a box containing revolvers lay concealed,
and when he opened it he would be blown up. A man
named Ruane was to be shot because he was disparag-
ing the society, and a similar fate was intended for a
man named Hogan, because he was a land grabber.
Mr. J. H. Scott and Mr. G. Scott were examined as
to the attempts made on them, and Constable Camp-
bell swore that when lying in ambush on one oocasion
he saw two men conceal themselves in a plantation
near which Mr. Scott would pass on his way home,
but Mr. Scott received a timely warning, and thus his
life was probably saved.
The case was adjourned.