The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-18 00:00:00

Shocking Murder at Sunderland.

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One of the quiet little streets which abound at
the west end of the Wearmouth borough has just
been the scene of a disgraceful row amongst Irish-
men, in which, unfortunately, one life was sacrificed.
A number of Irish were in the habit of resorting to
the Cottage Tavern, a small, one-storied edifice at
the foot of Hopper-street, and there talking over the
troubled state of their country. While some 15
or 20 of them were thus engaged on Saturday night
the general harmony was suddenly disturbed by
the appearance of a tall, rough-looking pitman from
the neighbourhood of Monkwearmouth, who, with-
out the slightest provocation, loudly asserted that
his name was Mickey Gorman, and that he was
open to fight any man on the north side of the
river, or any one in the company who disputed
his word. Among those assembled at this time was
James Quinn, .a teaser, employed at Messrs. Hartley
and Co.'s glass works, and he, taking upon himself
the duty of peacemaker, suggested that as nobody
present desired to dispute Gorman's prowess he had
better sit down and make himself comfortable.
Failing to accept this advice, however, a somewhat
noisy altercation ensued, and for fear of more serious
disturbances the landlord, John Shea, wisely refused
to grant any further supplies of liquor, and even-
tually succeeded in sending the whole company to
the door a little before midnight. Unfortunately,
they were no sooner in the open street than others of
the party got excited,and the wordy strife became so
violent that a crowd speedily assembled. Gorman,
whose fighting propensities were apparently un-
abated, immediately proceeded to forcibly impress
his convictions on one of the " boys" by striking
him on the mouth, and this would undoubtedly have
resulted in a perfect riot between the adherents of
the two combatants had not peace been on-ze more
restored by Quinn's well-timed allusion to their
being " one faith and one country." A move was
then made in the direction of Silksworth-row, but
not many yards had been traversed before Gorman
again became uproarious, and, backed by a com-
panion, vowed he would fight any man in the com-
pany for the championship of the north side of the
water. This bombast not being heeded, he took
offence at Quinn's oft-repeated words, " Go home,
Mickey," and replying that he would go, ran down
the street in the direction of the railway leading to
the river side, followed by the companion above re-
ferred to. Returning almost immediately, thecouple
elbowed their way through the crowd in the direc-
tion of Quinn, whom Gorman struck on the back
of the head with a brick, which knocked him insen-
sible to the ground. The cowardly assailants no
sooner perceived the mischief they had perpetrated
than they escaped amid the disorder that prevailed,
while the blood-stained missile—which Gorman
had evidently pulled from the ashes on the railway
side—was picked up as evidence against him. Quinn
was at once conveyed to his house in Water-street,
where, without having uttered a single word, he died
in about ten minutes. The police proceeded to
Monkwearmouth in search of prisoner, whom they
found stripped in a house in Brook-street. On being
charged with the murder, he denied all knowledge
of the occurrence. He was conveyed to the station-
house, and subsequently, Quinn's wife, who was with
her husband at the time of the occurrence—picked
him out from a batch of prisoners amongst whom
he had been placed, and charged him with being the
murderer, while some five or six other witnesses
bore the same testimony. Prisoner—a single man
—is well known to the police in consequence of
previous acts of violence, and when brought from
the house in which he lodged one of his brothers re-
marked, " The hare runs a long time, but she's
caught at last."

Deceased is said to have been a respectable,
honest, and humane man, and leaves a wife and five
children to mourn his loss. He had adopted a poor
orphan girl who was left destitute, and clothed and
educated her with his own family.—Northern Daily
Express.