The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-09 00:00:00

TEE MURDER OF MA G UIRE.

(From Me Clonmal Chi °mole.)

The blood of another victim in our county crieth
aloud for vengeance. Tipperary is once again
stained with the foul crime of murder. In the
broad morning light, on the side of a hill, within a
quarter of a mile of Glenbower Constabulary Bar-
racks, on yesterday, Michael Maguire, an old man
on the verge of that prescribed period of mortal
existence, closing the " three score years and ten'
was met by some one or two men as he was about
crossing over a low ditch on his farm at Raheen,
and armed with a knife or other sharp weapon,
they set upon their aged victim. The uprooted
ground—the thin stream of gore leading to the
spot where the spirit of the overpowered and
agonised sufferer takes flight—the large pool of
blood !—the stiffened corpse, with the head nearly
severed from the body, which had already been
stabbed all over in three or four places, the fright-
ful gash in the throat, and down the left cheek !
the torn garments covered over with the still well-
ing life blood I—this !—this! was the sight which
met the sight of his unsuspecting son, who sank
himself upon the earth in mute agony, until uncon-
sciousness mercifully robs him for a time of the
anguish of that heartrending moment. The young
man had fainted, and continued, with slight inter-
mission, insensible for nearly an hour. This was
all that was left of the aged parent who bad left his
home after breakfasting with his family of fine•
looking sons and daughters, at half-past seven
o'clock that morning, and had followed his plough-
man and four horses by, as was his custom, a short
cut over the bill, close to the base of Slievenamon.
Immediately on receipt of the intelligence in Water-
ford, we hastened to Carrick, and from thence drove
to Glenbower, distant about four miles and a half,
to glean upon the spot those details which we now
lay before our readers. The deceased, Michael
Maguire, lived in a farm, on the lands of Ballina-
cluna, which he held from W. Barker, Esq., of Kil-
cooly-Abbey. His dwelling house was of good size,
slated and well built, with the out-offices in excel-
cellent order, and the land, about 30 acres, well
cultivated. There is abundant reason to believe that
he was a hardworking thrifty man through life,
though somewhat elose in his habits ; that he
was an improving tenant cannot be denied, for a
glance around his holding and his residence, with
its double row of windows well cleaned and painted,
the orderly appearance of the cow-sheds, barns, &c.,
this proved that he was not one of those men who
consented to eat the bread of idleness. Oa the very
morning of the murder, he was threading his rather
feeble way, at that early hour, with seed to sow at
his second farm at Raheen, thus taking immediate
advantage of the favourable change in the weather.
In February last, about the end of the month, a man
named Michael Kennedy, a powerful able man, of
a thoroughly idle chr.racter, was evicted by Mr.
Gerald Fitzgerald, sub-sheriff of this county, under
a civil bill decree for non-payment of rent, from a
farm of twenty-two acres at Raheen, which was
formerly part of the estate of Mrs. Rebecca Hart-
ford, and was sold in the Incumbered Estates Court.
This portion of the property was purchased by Mr.
John Murphy, of Clonmel, and afterwards sold to
Mr. Hanrahan, of Cork, whose agent is Mr. John
B. Lacy, of this town. The dispossessed farm being
in the market was let to the highest bidder, and the
deceased became the purchaser, having given, we
are informed, £l5O for the privilege of possession.
Kennedy went to live with his brother, and the son
of the deceased tells us seemed pleased that the farm
had fallen into the hands of Maguire, who had al-
ready taken ten acres adjacent from the brother,
Patrick Kennedy. Scarcely deceased was in the
farm three weeks, when ill feeling began to show
itself in a manifest and decided manner—two of his
ploughs were maliciously broken on the Raheen
farm, but no clue could be had to the perpetrator of
the act, though " the whole country round," to use
a provincialism, held within their own minds one
man is guilty, and feared that tlaffl breaking of the
ploughs was but the presage of greater vengeance.
Threats were heard that the man should not be
allowed to exist who took the holding of the evicted,
yet nothing of a positive warning was given, and
in an unconscious hour the poor old man was struck
down, a victim of blood-thirsty vengeance. At half-
past seven o'clock on Tuesday morning the old man
went to Raheen, passing by the police barracks.
in which were but two sub constables at the time of
the murder, as the rest of the party had proceeded
to Carrick-on-Muir on duty. He was not seen alive
afterwards by any of his family. The two workmen
whom he had sent with four horses around by the
road—himself preferring a short cut through the
fields—had arrived, and after tackling the ploughs
had commenced work in a field, on the top or pla-
teau of the hill that slopes down the Clonmel and
Kilkenny road. Looking from the police barrack
door, one could see a part of " the field of blood"
not 500 yards away! In a ditch at the off side
lurked the bloodthirsty assassin, close to the stile
over which the old man, M‘Guit e, must pass ere he
enters the field on his direct way to and imme-
diately adjoining the ground prepared for seed
sowing. The crouching tiger, for we can hardly
apply an epithet of humanity to him, permitted his
prey to come within a few yards of the ditch when
he sprang forward, it is generally supposed, jumped
over the fence, and seized the aged victim by the
throat ere he could utter a erifor help. [We are
here assuming that but one person wes engaged in
this awful act.] He is pounced upon as a hawk upon
its quarry—suddenly, ferocionsly, and held in the
iron grasp of his powerful, uay overwhelming
assailant. The fatal knife does its bloody work, and
the wounded man struggles for existence ere the
last gash is given. From the pierced breast and
stomach of the tortured victim the blood flows in
sufficient quantity to mark out the circle round
which the cowardly ruffian strived with his poor
victim in his death struggle. Here a well of gore
marks some dreadful pause. Again the stream con-
tinues in completing the blood-marked circle, until
the copious pool points to where the deceased sank
to the ground, and from his severed neck flowed
fast the tide of life. Another lacerated wound, and
the villain escapes to rid himself of the evidence of
guilt. What a horrible picture ! The limbs of the
stiffening remains grow cold, exposed in a grass
field rests the murdered father, until in an hour and
a half after, his son, a fine young man, comes along
the same path, and seeing the ghastly sight of a
buchered parent, he falls beside it, overpowered
with fainting weakness. Then comes help, and
the constabulary are apprised of the deed by a
man named Patrick Smith. They hasten to the
spot and render assistance to the fainting young
man, and remove the body of the father to his farm•
yard at Ballinacluna. Intelligence was conveyed
by a constable from Glenbower to the resident
magistrate, S. Hanna, R.M., and the sub-inspector
of the district, Mr. Heard, who at once reported
the matter by telegram to head-quarters at Dublin
Castle, and to the county inspector, Captain Hems-
worth, at Clonmel. Mr. Carbry Scully, who resides
within a mile and a half of the deceased's residence,
was the first to reach the spot, soon followed by
Mr. Hanna, R.M., and Mr. Heard, 5.1., with a
party of 14 men from Cal-lick, four from Nine-mile-
House,lour from Glenbower, and two from Kilcash.
Captain Hemsworth, C. 1., arrived quickly from
Clonmel. and Mr. Thomas B. Wilson, J.P., and Dr.
Edmondson, from Carrick, and Mr. Xavier Butler,
Piltown,:county Kilkenny, the sub-inspector of the
district immediately adjacent to the scene of the
murder, who was eager to render to the authorities
any assistance in his power.
The body having been sent away, the place is
searehed minutely, and the object of suspicion,
Michael Kennedy, is searched for far and wide. At
two o'clock he is found in a forge belonging to a man
named Murphy, near South-lodge, by Mr. Heard,
5.1., and arrested forthwith. But his clothes bear
no mark of blood. If he be the man who committed
this fearful atrocity, who plunged as it were into the
very blood of the old man—if he were the man
who brandished the deadly blade, and struggled in
close quarters with his victim, he must have borne
away with him abundant proof of the dreadful deed.
Five or six hours had intervened, and certainly the
murderer, whoever he be, had time to wipe away
the more glaring evidence of his blood-thirstiness.
On Tuesday night the body lay in the outhouse.
Through the neighbourhood, we regret to say, there
appeared no open, active sympathy among the class
to which the unhappy deceased belonged. His own
family and immediate relatives stood around the
lowly bier—a solitary Sub-Constable sat there
through the night to guard the body from dis
turbance.

THE INQUEST
was commenced on Wednesday morning before
James John Shee, Esq., coroner for the district, who
arrived at Ballincluna at about 11 o'clock. There
was a thronged attendance of the sympathising
people of the neighbourhood. The coffin was covered
with black cloth, and a hearse was awaiting to con-
vey the remains of the deceased to their final resting
place. The jury were sworn after 3 o'clock, the
coroner from the time he arrived being engaged in
searching for evidence.
The Coroner then said Gentlemen, you have
been sworn to inquire into the death of Michael
Maguire, now lying dead at Ballincluna. You are
assembled under a very old and ancient law—one
of the oldest under the constitution, which imposes
upon the neighbours and residents of the locality
where death occurs the necessity of inquiring into
the cause of that death. I believe there can be no
doubt that a murder, a barbarous murder, has been
committed, and to no more impartial tribunal can
be entrusted the inquiry into the circumstances of
such a fearful crime than to you, farmers residing in
the neighbourhood where the death occurred. I trust
you Will aid in every possible manner the authnri-