The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-04 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, AVG. 2,

The accounts of murders are coming so rapidly
upon us that they will soon cease to produce any
sensation from dint of repetition. The last always
appears the worst, the most daring and atrocious ;
but another comes and casts it into the shade. The
news of assassination comes like successive flashes
of lightning in a thunderstorm, each more vivid
and lurid than its predecessor, and followed by a
louder clap ; but the eye and the ear become ac.
customed to the phenomena. The murder of Mr.
Braddell, however, seems to have reached the
climax. We can hardly conceive anything more
horrible, unless the assassin walks into the church
during Divine service and murders a landlord in
his pew, and then walks off without being inter-
rupted or questioned. There are peculiar circum-
stances connected with this astounding crime which
invest it with something of the interest of romance.
In Carleton's numerous sketches of bailiffs, the
boldest fiction does not come up to the reality
brought to light on this termination of a lengthened
connection between Michael Hayes, the murderer,
and his victim. In order to understand the denoue-
ment it is necessary to refer to the previous history
of the parties.
Mr. Braddell, a highly respectable solicitor,
living at Mallow, in the neighbouring county of
Cork, has been for many years acting as agent for
several landlords. The famine of 1847 was the
means of utterly " breaking" many of the small far-
mers in all parts of the country. They had lost the
Whole of their capital and stock, they were deeply
in arrears, and it was quite impossible that they
could crop the land or pay rent for it. Their al-
most sole means of existence was the potato, and
that was gone apparently for ever. 'Unless, there-
fore, the landlords relinquished their property and
allowed it to become a common, they must evict the
tenants who could not pay rent. Many of them
were obliged to sell, and the new owners were re-
solved to have a fair return for their money. It
fell to the lot of Mr. Braddell to be engaged exten-
sively in the odious work of eviction, which is
always accompanied with painful, sometimes with
tragic incidents, occasioned by the removal of aged
and sick persons. It is stated by the Mornmg
News, a Tenant Right and Ultramontane journal,
that between 1847 and 1850, Mr. Braddell had
ejected in one parish no less than 250 families, re-
presenting about 1,250 individuals. In effecting all
that dreadful work, Michael Hayes, the murderer,
was his bailiff; and it is said that he was one of the
worst specimens of the detested class to which he
belonged. He is a tall powerful man, of dark com-
plexion, repulsive physiognomy, with a sinister ex-
pression about his eyes. As might be expected, his
character was not the best, and no doubt Mr.
Braddell had sufficient reason for dismissing him
from his employment. His successor was Daniel
Moore, the young man who was in the room at the
time of the murder. It appears that in addition to
the dismissal, there was a more serious cause of ani-
mosity and a stronger motive for committing the
crime, in the threatened eviction of Hayes himself
from a small farm which he held under Colonel Hare.
Mr. Braddell had selected for his office the smok-
ing room of the hotel, a small apartment at the
rear of the building, approached by a long, narrow,
ill-lighted passage, the room having a window open-
ing into the yard, Mr. Braddell sat at the table on
which was the box containing the money he had re-
ceived from the tenants. He was dressed in a suit of
grey with a soft felt hat. It should be mentioned that
a son of Hayes had been prosecuted at the last assizes
for the murder of a man named Quinlan, who had
obtained a farm from which he had been ejected.
At the trial Mr. Braddell was a material witness.
The evidence, however, was not deemed sufficient
by the jury, and the prisoner escaped. Since that
time the deceased seemed to be under some appre-
hension that the elder Hayes would make an at-
tempt on his own life, and he therefore carried
pistols. Moore, the bailiff, an athletic young man
about 20 years of age, was in attendance on his
master. The only other person present in the room
before the occurrence was a tenant, named Reardon,
who came to speak about drainage. While he was
speaking Hayes entered. The scene that followed
is described by Reardon and Moore. The former,
in his evidence at the inquest, said that Hayes
wanted Mr. Braddell to allow him to remain on the
land at the same rent he had always paid. He said
that Colonel Hare had no objections to his remain-
ing, and that Braddell was the person that wished
to put him out. Mr. Braddell made no reply.
Hayes then got angry, and was very much ex-
cited. The deceased at last said, "I want to have
nothing to do with you." Witness noticing the
passion in which Hayes was, tried to persuade
him to leave the room, but he would not go.
Witness then went out himself, and just as he
passed the door and got into the passage he heard
a shot, and then he heard a second shot, and im-
mediately Mr. Braddell rushed passed him, and ran
to the hall into the street, saying nothing, but
pressing his hand against his side. Witness saw
Hayes in the street afterwards.
" The Coroner—ls it possible that you made no
attempt to catch him? Yon saw him in the street ;
yon heard the shot fired. Good God !—why did
you give no alarm—why did you not try to have
the murderer taken up P
" Witness—Shure I did.
" The Coroner—When ? Is it possible that
Tipperary has fallen so low that we are to be cowed
by one or two assassins ? Is the whole of Tipperary
at the beck of a murderer ?

" Daniel Moore was called and sworn—He de-
posed that he was sitting in the room when Hayes
came in, and heard him ask Mr. Braddell to allow
him to remain upon the land ; that Mr. Braddell
refused, and that Hayes then fired. He saw Mr.
Braddell leap up and rush out of the room. Wa-
rless swore that he attempted to catch hold of
Hayes, but could not succeed in holding him, and
that Roles then went out of the room, and he went
out at almost the same time. The man passed
through the hall into the street, and he saw no more
of him.

0 The Coroner__-,,
3.0 u
tellL are a strong, althetic young
man, and yet
escape usf you could
preventing the not succeed in
The following i
A AL thei3 murderer !"
...._raddell's dying declara-
tion, read at, the inquest*
Waller B
Mallow in
"I John ra-ddell, of
that in the town of
county of Cork, Esq., but at present . w, the
being fully aware
Tipperary,
state from the effects of a pistol lola., in a dying
desirous to make this, my dying ut, and being
, do

declare as follows :--
" I was receiving rents at Dobbyn's
liThere were iotel, in the
town of Tipperary, on this day. n the
room Daniel Moore, Thomas Reardon, and Michael
Hayes, of Carrigmore, county of Limerick, and no
other person. I was sitting in said room when the
said Michael Hayes took from his breast pocket a
pistol, and aimed same at me, firing at same time
the contents of said pistol, which lodged in my
abdomen, and from the effects of which I am now
in a dying state. I have been for years acquainted
with the said Michael Hayes, and entertain no
doubt whatever but he is the person who fired at

me as aforesaid.

" JOHN WALLER BRADDELL.
". Acknowledged by the said John Waller Brad-
dell, ii-efnre me, this 30th of July, 1862.
J. MASSEY, J.P., county of Tipperary."
Dr. Nadi!). And Dr. Kennedy were examined, and
made the folio wing joint information :
"We this day have nude a post mortem examina-
tion of the body of the deceased, Mr. John Waller
Braddell. We find that his death was caused by a
'wound inflicted by a pistol bullet which passed
through the abdomen, wounding the vessels of the
great omentum, and lodging in the right side. The
wolma caused internal haemorrhage, inflammation
and death. The bullet asset' through the left
arm before it entered the
abdomen."
The jury then retired, and after an absence of
.10,33 e time returned to the room and handed in a
N verdict of wilful murder against Michael Hayes.
,“ The Coroner, addressing Daniel Moore, said the
directed him to exp,
jury. .had • onducttheir very strong
de
contanatiOu of his c in making no effort to
seize and hold tL'e murderer of Ith.
'l3raddell, and
.not giving a prompt ai.arra.
old lulu,
and
" Moore said he did attempt ;.0 h