The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-18 00:00:00

ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A PROTESTANT
CLERGYMAN IN IRELAND.

On Wednesday morning an atrocious attempt was
made on the life of the Rev. Richard Graham, Protestant
curate of Meigh, at his residence near Meigh Church.
The scene of outrage is in the county of Armagh, in the
parish of Killevy, and within about 200 yards of the re-
sidence of Mr. Chambers, who narrowly escaped with
life from the hand of an assassin last year.
The gentleman was occupied writing in his bed-room
up to about 12 o'clock. While he was thus engaged,
about this hour, he observed that the moonlight which
shone through an aperture in the window-shutters was
intercepted, and on looking towards the window, he ob-
served a human face. He immediately hurried out and
accosted the person who was standing near the road, on
his own premises ; he recollected that he had seen the
same individual, who appeared to be a stranger, twice on
the evening before, and he asked what he wanted about
the house. The man muttered something about Cross-
maglen'—that he desired to be informed the way to
Crossmaglen. Mr. Graham replied that he had already
given him that information, and ordered him to be off;
or that he would shoot him or drag him to the police
barrack of Meigh, situate about half a mile from the
residence of Mr. Graham. The fellow immediately
slunk away at a slow pace in the direction of the road
to Crossmaglen. Mr. Graham returned to the room,
but finding that the fire had gone out, he went into the
kitchen and lighted a fire. An old man named M'Con-
nell, and a boy named Kelly, aged about fourteen years.
slept in the kitchen, and were asleep at this period,
Mr. Graham sat in a chair, and in a short time
removed to a lower seat before the fire. It was
now about one o'clock, or a little past it, and he
began to doze for a short time. He had continued
to doze in this way for about twenty minutes or
half an hour, when he was partially aroused
by a rustling noise, which, thinking it was made
by a cat, he did not notice, and was beginning to sleep
again, when he suddenly experienced a kind of shock,
a,ad sensibly felt something come in contact with and
pass through his hat, which he wore at the time, and
simultaneously he heard a loud report of firearms, the
apartment became at once filled with smoke, and a
strong smell of gunpowder was experienced. Mr. Gra-
ham's first act was to arouse the inmates of the kitchen,
and after some time he awakened the boy Kelly, and
asked him to go to Meigh village for the police. Kelly
refused, alleging that he was afraid that if he went out
he would be shot, and Mr. Graham himself ran off to
the barracks and related the occurrence. The police
stationed at the ' Gatehouse,' which is only about half a
mile distant from Mr. Graham's, at the Crossmaglen
side, were also aroused, and a vigorous search was in-
stituted immediately, but without leading to any dis-
covery. Mr. Graham's hat was perforated in two
or three places, and the slugs with which the
weapon was loaded, having entered the side,
providentially passed out through the crown without
touching the head. Four large slugs, supposed to be
portions of an iron ramrod, were discovered near the
wall behind where Mr. Graham was sitting. The shot
was fired through an aperture in a back window, which
was immediately opposite where Mr. GrahaM sat, so
that his escape was little short of miraculous. It is
extremely difficult to assign any feasible reason for this
assassin outrage ; unless, indeed, it is to be attributed
to the fact that the rev, gentleman had, for the past few
weeks, given some assistance to an old man, named
M'Connell, who has incurred the displeasure of the
people of the district, on account of his being a most
important witness in a prosecution, instituted in
the year '5l, against a person residing in that
locality, for writing a threatening notice. M'Connell
then left the country, and had not been heard of until
within the past fortnight, when he returned to Meigh.
From the moment that his return became known he
was everywhere subjected to contumely and derision by
the people ; and, on Saturday last, he was hooted and
scoffed at by a mob in Newry. This poor, infirm man,
who is about 75 years of age, was sleeping at the resi-
dence of Mr. Graham on Tuesday night, when the
attempt was made on the life of the reverend gentleman.
Mr. Graham warned M'Connell that his life was in
danger if lie remained in that part of the country, and
we believe it was intended that he should immediately
leave it.