The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-27 00:00:00

THE FENIAN RAID IN KERaY.

om Me Times' Special Correspondent.)
K I LLARNEY, Monday.
If there is any one place in Ireland where you
might not expect a Fenian rising it is Killarney.

Tourists are easily frightened away by disturbance
or rumours of disturbance, and the 5,000 inhabitants

of Killarney depend more or less for their support
upon the tourist season. Charitable and educational
institutions abound. There is a dispensary, a fever
hospital, and a lying-in institution, lately founded
by the benevolent exertions of Lady Castlerosse.
The poorhouse, though capable of holding 1,000
persons, now has between 400 and 500 inmates,
mostly children and infirm poor, and, as the out-
door relief is very small, there can be no such des-
titution in or about the town as would explain the

intended rising. A very handsome lunatic asylum
crowns the hill close to the town—large enough, one
would suppose, for the ordinary wants of the dis-

trict, though Dr. Moriarty, the Roman Catholic
Bishop here, suggests that, as Fenianism is good

presumptive proof of insanity, this institution may
require enlargement. A Protestant church with a
small congregation, a Roman Catholic cathedral with
a large congregation, and several Roman Catholic
chapels supply the religious wants of the population.

Then there are three convents of nuns—first, an
old-established one of Presentation nuns, where the

female children of the poor receive a free education

in connection with the National Board ; secondly, a
convent of the Sisters of Mercy, to which is at-

tached an orphanage, and also a school for poor
children ; and, thirdly, a convent of Louth nuns,
who devote themselves to the education of young

ladies. Besides these a monastery of Franciscan

friars, chiefly Belgians, ministers to the spiritual
wants of the poor ; and in the monastery of Pre.

sentation Brothers about 350 male children receive

a gratuitous education in connection with the Na

tional Board. There is also a Protestant school, and

I believe that a National School will shortly be

established.

In all these respects Killarney is exceptionally
favoured, nor does it suffer, as many districts in Ire-
land suffer, from absenteeism. The Kenmare
demesne and mansion are close to the town, and
Lord Castlerosse's children were living there at the

time of the threatened outbreak. Lord Castlerosse
himself was absent from Kerry on account of the
dangerous illness of Lady Castlerosse. I believe that
his lordship returns to London from Rome on Wed-
nesday. I have heard from the people themselves
nothing but good of Lord Castlerosse, Mr. Herbert,
M.P., of Muckross (and his late father), and Lord
Headley, who are the chief landlords of the neigh-
bourhood. "If all Kerry were up, sir, and the people
marched past Lord Headley's hall door, I'd go
bail they'd not move the matter of a pebble. If they
could, sir, they'd make honeysuckles grow under
Lord Headley's feet as he walked abroad !" This was
the tribute paid in my hearing, with a gush of en-
thusiasm, by a small trader of the town to one of the
neighbouring landlords. Another resident in humble
circumstances, who, I have no doubt, also had fair
opportunities for testing the feeling of the tenantry
around Killarney, was eloquent upon the generosity.
of Lord Castlerosse, because iu 1858, before dispos-
ing of certain estates in Carlow, Queen's County,
, and Kilkenny, under the Encumbered Estates Court

Act, his lordship went down there with his agent,
Mr. Gallwey, and granted all the tenantry leases
for 21 years. " Thereby he lost £4o,ooo—so they
say; for the leases reduced by so much the value of
the estates. There was noble generosity ! And yet
the people here were going to burn Lord Castlerosse's
princely mansion !" The fact that leases were granted
under these circumstances is undoubted. lam not
so sure that the grant of these leases produced any-
thing like the money loss which my informant re-
presented. I only repeat the story to show the feel-
ing which prevails among, at all events, a section of
the inhabitants, and to show that gratitude instead
of grievance is the prevailing sentiment among a
part as it probably ought to be among all. But it is
tolerably clear that in Killarney the laud question
was not the cause of disaffection—that is to say, it
was not a local grievance, inflaming the minds of
the people and operating as a primary cause of dis-
affection and disturbance.
It is not at all clear that the Fenians meant to
burn Lord Castlerosse's mansion. But the same in-
formation which led to the apprehension of " Cap-
tain" Moriarty, and utterly disconcerted the Fenian
plans in Killarney, declares that the house of Mr.
Gallwey, Lord Castlerosse's agent, was to be burnt
with Greek fire. I was curious to know whether
ground existed for any personal ill-feeling against
the agent, but find no trace of any such feeling, and
no such cause for it. Mr. Gallwey is a Roman
Catholic gentleman, greatly respected in the town
and neighbourhocd, devoted to his church, conside-
rate to his tenantry, and courteous to all. He has
been agent to Lord Castlerosse for 14 years, and on
venturing to inquire from him how often he had
exercised during that time the legal rights of the
landlord, I found that he has distrained once, but
did not even then proceed to sale, and has only
ejected three persons—two of them for nonpay-
ment of rent. Private malice or revenge, then, can
have had no place here, and, indeed, to give even
the Fenians their due, they only proposed to burn
Mr. Gallwey's house, according to the information
supplied of their plans, as a piece of strategy. They
calculated that upon the burning of a house so con-
siderable the constabulary would turn out from their
barrack ; in the confusion they would get posses-
sion of the police-barrack and the arms and ammu-
nition stored there ; and they would then have the
constabulary at their mercy. A rising was also to
have taken place in Mill-street, a small town upon
the Great Southern and Western Railway, about 20
miles east of this place, and then the insurgents were
to have marched upon Mallow Junction, a point of
great importance, now held by a strong body of
troops. Of course, one does not know how far this
information may be accurate ; but some amount of
presumptive proof is yielded by the fact that
the story proved accurate in one particular in which
it could be tested--the approach of Moriarty as the
accredited Fenian representative. The informer
stated, further, that there was to be a general
rising of Fenians throughout Ireland on the even-
ing of the 12th of February ; that they were
fully prepared with arms and ammunition ; and
that he feared there would be a frightful loss of life
and property, as the Fenians intended to make
dreadful havoc.
To-day the detachment of the 48th Regiment was
sent back to the Curragh from Killarney. Its place
will be taken by the 14th Regiment. Gen. Horsford
returned on Saturday from his visit to Kenmare,
Sneem, Cahirciveeu, Kilorglin, and other outlying
places at which detachments are stationed. It will
probably be necessary to continue a small detach-
ment for some time to come at these places, and
especially at Cahirciveen, the hotbed of the conspi-
racy. The misfortune is that the presence of troops
at any such points creates an expenditure of money,
and benefits, perhaps, the very men who have
brought them there, so that sedition thus becomes
its own reward. At Cahirciveen, on Saturday, the
case of ten prisoners was heard at a private sitting
of the magistrates, among whom were Dr. Barry,
chairman, the Knight of Kerry, Mr. Cruice, Capt.
Segrave, and others. The charge against the whole
of the prisoners was of aiding and abetting in the
outbreak on the 12th. In the case of one prisoner,
however, an alibi was proved, and he way discharged