The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-24 00:00:00

IRISH SPECIAL COMMISSION.

LIMERICK, JAN. 21.—1 t has been our painful duty
to record the particulars of some of the most savage
and cold- blooded murders that have ever disgraced
Ihuman nature ; but the one that was investigated by
the Court to-day exceeds them all in the barbarous
atrocity of its perpetration. The person who stood
charged with it is a man named Michael Howard, of
respectable appearance, and about thirty years of age,
and although he was simply indicted for killing
Johanna Hourigan, yet from the facts we are about
to state it will appear that there was another victim
of his blood-thirsty rage.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, with his accustomed
perspicuity, stated the circumstances of the case.
It appeared that in the month of November, 1846, a
small farmer, named Philip Hourigan, who resided at
Ballycullen, in this county, was met by a party of five
or six men, and so violently assaulted and beaten by
them that his life was in danger. As soon as he had
recovered a little from the effects of the beating he
appealed to the law, and swore informations against
the parties concerned in the outrage. Three of them,
named Hayes, K enelly, and Marten, were prosecuted at
the Spring Assizes in 1847, and on the clearest evi-
dence were convicted and transported. A fourth of
the party, a man named Rourke, contrived to escape
from justice and remained at large. In consequence
of Hourigan's coming forward to prosecute at those
assizes it became necessary that he should have the
protection of some police in his house. He accord-
ingly applied to the authorities, and they allowed him
a sufficient number to protect him from outrage. The
barrack to which the party of police belonged was
not very far from the residence of Hourigan, and the
police were in the habit of going to the barrack to
take their meals with their comrades, Rourke, and
two men named Howard, one of whom was the pri-
soner at the bar, being aware of this fact, determined
to take advantage of an opportunity of the kind
for killing Hourigan. They accordingly watched
the police leaving, the house, and about eight
o'clock on the morning of the 6th of April,
1847, having seen the police leave as usual, those
three men armed, two with blunderbusses and :the
third with a gun, went to Hourigan's house. For-
tunately for himself, but unfortunately for his un-
offending wife, he happened to be out at the time ;
he was in an adjacent haggard. They did not see him,
but he had the fullest opportunity of seeming them;
and although their faces were partially blackened he
was able to identify them all. At the time the 7
arrived at the house the only inmates were Hourigan s
wife, Johanna ; his son, a boy of nineteen, who was
confined to his bed with fever ; and a daughter, a
married woman, who had gone to keep her mother
company. They looked for Hourigan, and not finding
him they were determinded to have some victim of
their rage ; they accordingly shot the poor fellow's
wife ; but not content with that they went into the
bedroom inside the kitchen, where the sick boy was
1 lying, dragged him from the bed, and shot him dead
on the floor.
For this most barbarous murder one of the How-
ard's, who was a brother-in-law of Hayes, was tried,
convicted and executed at the last assizes. Rouke
had eluded all the efforts of ]lie police to capture him.
The other Howard, who was a cousin of Marten's,
was now put upon his trial.
Hourigan, who had been thus deprived at one fell
blow of his wife and son, proved that part of the
horrible transaction of which he was a witness.

The married daughter, a neatly dressed woman,
said that she was in the kitchen when the prisoner
and three men entered. They asked for her father,
and when they found he was not there one of them
presented a gun at her mother and fired. The poor
woman fell across the fender, and the men then struck
her a blow on the head. They then found their way
into the bedroom. She heard her poor brother call
out, and then a shot was fired. She ran out of the
house, but the men leaving directly afterwards, she
returned, and found her mother lying actually on the
fire with her clothes burning. She immediately
dragged her off the fire, and at that time she was
alive, but she died within a few minutes. The
daughter identified the Howards as two of the men
who entered the house.
A little girl, about 13, another daughter of Houri-
gan, said she was in the cowhouse when the men
came up. She saw them enter the house and imme-
diately heard a shot. She ran thither, and the first
thing she saw was her mother lying apparently dead.
She described the dress of the party, but was unable
to identify them. Her description, however, cor-
responded with that which was given by the other
witness. The poor girl cried bitterly as she gave her
evidence.

A boy about 15 years of age, named Daniel Kelle-
han, stated that on the morning of the murder he saw
three men coming from the direction of his master's
house, which was near Hourigan's. They had crossed
over into the road from a field, and as they were
going in the same direction as himself, when they
came up to him they asked whether he knew them ?
Fortunately, no doubt, for himself, he did not; and
he told them so, and they then passed on. The men
had their faces blackened, but as they sweated a good
deal they had wiped some of the blacking off. He was
able to identify the prisoner by two moles or warts on
his face. The trousers of the men were wet at the
time, and it was proved by other witnesses that in
making a short cut from Hourigan's they would have
to pass through a little stream.
Hourigan's brother said, he was on the spot soon
after the murder; and the daughter then pointed out
three men who were going in the direction of the
stream, as the men who had committed it.

There was a difficulty in the evidence in this
respect. Kellehan stated, that he had heard of the
murder before the three men came up to him ; and he
was told of it by a boy at a forge which he passed on
his road ; and, that still further on, another boy had
told him more of the particulars, but the forge was
so located that to reach it from Hourigan's a person
travelling by the usual road must describe two sides
of a triangle, whilst the three men were stated to
have made a short cut over the stream and across the
fields to the same point. The only way in which the
difficulty could be explained was by referring it to the
rapidity with which rumours are conveyed.
But there was another remarkable circumstance in
the evidence. The murder was committed at eight
o'clock in the morning, and yet the boy Kellehan
swore that it must have been ten when he saw the
men, although the cut they took from Hourigan's
was not more than from three-quarters to a mile.
These circumstances were forcibly dwelt upon by
Mr. O'Hea in his defence of the prisoner.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL replied in a very able
speech, directing the attention of the jury to the
fact that Hourigan himself had spoken positively as
to the prisoner's being one of the three men by
whom the murder was committed, and that he had
given the same testimony on the trial of the other
Howard.
The LORD CRLEr BARON, in summing up, said,
the only question which the jury had to determine
was, whether the prisoner was sufficiently identified
as one of the murderous assailants, for of the cir-
cumstances connected with the murder itself there
could not be a moment's doubt. His Lordship then
went through the evidence, commenting upon it at
great length.
The jury retired for a short time, and returned
with a verdict of Guilty.

The prisoner, who had throughout conducted him-
self in a devil-may-care sort of manner, very coolly
dispatched an egg which he had brought
.with him,
whilst the jury had retired, and on their return he
received the announcement of his fate without any
apparent •motion.

This prisoner is the fifth who, under the commis-
sion for this county, has been found guilty of murder.
John Frewin and Thomas Frewin, the brothers of
William Frewin, who on the first sitting of the Court
was found guilty of harbouring William Ryan (Puck),
knowing him to have murdered John Kelly, and who
was sentenced to transportation for life, were then
placed in the dock, charged with being parties to the
harbouring.
Mr. Blackall, as their attorney, said they were
desirous of withdrawing their plea of not guilty, and
pleading guilty.
In extenuation of their conduct it was stated that
one of them had been absent from his brother's house
when Ryan first went there, and returned only half
an hour before he was taken ; and the other bad no
concern with his brother's house.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said, that considering
the brother had been sentenced to transportation for
life, and the other circumstances that had just been
stated, he did not wish to move the Court for any
very severe measure of punishment.
They were then ordered to be brought up to-
morrow to receive their sentences.
Two other prisoners charged with stealing a gun
from an empty house, and who had been in custody
since March last, having themselves for some reason
or other put off their trial, pleaded " Guilty," and
were immediately sentenced to twelve months' im-
prisonment from the time of their being first placed
in custody.

.APPOINTMENTS.-111r. William Law, one of the
clerks in the Treasury, has been appointed to act as
private secretary to Lord John Russell, in the absence
from England of Mr. Charles Grey. This arrangement
is consequent upon the election to the House of Com-
mons of both his Lordship's secretaries. Mr. R. W.
Grey and the Hon. Colonel Keppel. Mr. Henry Edward
Stanley is appointed Assistant Precis Writer to the
Foreign-office, an arrangement rendered necessary by
the Precis Writer, Lord Anson, having a seat in Parlia-
ment. Mr. Arthur Baily is appointed Surveyor-
General at the Faulkland Islands. Mr. John Scott is
to be Surveyor- General to the new settlement of Labuan..
The new Consul, Mr. Plowden—who is appointed for
the purpose of extending our relations with Abyssinia.
will reside at Massoah, a port on the Red Sea depen-
dent on the Ottoman empire. We believe that the
vacant Garter will be conferred on the Duke of Norfok.
—Observer.