The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-17 00:00:00

A correspondent writing from Cork, by date Saturday,
gives some further details of the agrarian outrage in
Tipperary :—" Late yesterday evening," he says, " intelli-
gence was received of a singularly daring and sanguinary
agrarian outrage having been committed at a place called
Ballycoohey, in the neighbourhood of the Limerick Junc-
tion, and upon the borders of the county Tipperary. Mr.
William Scully, brother of Mr. Vincent Scully, formerly
M.P. for this county, while proceeding to execute extensive
evictions on his property in that locality, under the pro-
tection of a party of five armed policemen, was
fired on from one of the farmhouses, at which desperate
resistance was offered to the execution of the legal process,
and in the affray two of the policemen were shot dead,
Mr. Scully himself receiving two wounds in the head. The
scene of the outrage lies about two miles south of the
Limerick Junction, on the verge of the broad and fertile
plain known as the G olden Vein. Mr. Scully and his
brother hold in this part of the country an extensive
property, their management of which does not appear
to have given satisfaction to their tenants. None
of the family are popular, but Mr. William
Scully seems to have incurred a particularly large share of
ill-will in the locality of his estates. The causes of this
feeling are those which generally bring landlords into dis-
repute in Ireland. He has been constantly embroiled in
disputes with his tenants. Evictions have been by no
means unfrcqucnt on his property, and in the assertion of
his territorial rights he has occasionally come into actual
collision with the people. Indeed, it may be said that in
the whole of Tipperary there is not a better hated man.
Circumstances of recent occurrence have imparted
peculiar bitterness to the feeling against Mr. Scully.
For the past three months thirty families on his estate in
the neighbourhood of Ballycoohey have had notice to
quit. As may be imagined, the prospect of so exten-
sive an eviction at a time when a very strong
feeling exists in the county upon the subject of tenant-
right aroused a powerful sense of indignation and resent.
ment against Mr. Scully. On Friday the period of notice
to quit expired, and Mr. Scully prepared to takepossession
of the land. Resistance of some sort appears to have been
anticipated, for Scully secured the services of a party of
five policemen—four sub-constables and a constable—as a
protection to himself and his bailiffs while the eviction
was being executed. Early on Friday morning Mr.
Scully, his driver, and one bailiff, so escorted, pro.
ceeded in cars to the scene of the evictions, and the
cortege was noticed with no friendly feeling as it
passed along the road. According to the information
received here the demand for possession was made and
complied with at several of the farms, but at one !arm,
held by a family named Dwyer, sanguinary and desperate
resistance, quite unparalleled in its premeditation and
resoluteness, was experienced. Previous to the arrival of
the evictors the occupants of this farm deliberately closed
the dwelling-house and other premises, and, having pro-
vided themselves with firearms and ammunition, retired
to the barn, which was the strongest building of the lot,
barricaded the entrance, and prepared to dispute the pro-
cess of the law. The arrangement of the farm buildings
was that usual in Irish holdings. The various premises
formed an irregular square, inclosing a narrow space
called here the `bawn,' every part of which the barn
commanded. When Mr. Scully and his party arrived
they found the place silent and apparently deserted. A
formal demand for surrender of the premises was made,
but received no response. An attempt is stated to have
been made to gain admission to the dwelling-house. This
brought matters to a crisis, and precipitated the melan-
choly outrage. The party in the barn, the number and
identity of whom cannot be ascertained, shelved them-
selves, and sternly warned Mr. Scully off. The police
were then called on for assistance, and on the first demon-
stration made by them a deadly volley was discharged
from the windows of the barn. Two of the sub-constables,
named Gorman and • Murrough, were shot dead,
and Mr. Scully received two wounds, not of a dangerous
character. The driver and bailiff escaped unhurt, as did
also the three remaining policemen. Surprised and panic.
stricken by the sudden attack, and fearing that the barn
was held by a numerous party, the survivors beat a hasty
retreat, leaving their dead companions on the ground.
No attempt to pursue them or to inflict further injury
was made, and they regained the Limerick Junction, the
nearest station at which refuge could be had, without
further molestation. The alarming fatal occurrence
was immediately reported at all the adjoining polices
stations, and with the utmost expedition a numerous
force was despatched to the scene of the encounter.
The farmhouse was found quite deserted, its former
occupants having availed themselves of the interval
to make their escape. A close and extensive search of the
neighbourhood was at once instituted, but without, so far
as could be ascertained, revealing the smallest trace of the
perpetrators of the outrage, and up to a late hour last
night no arrests were reported to have been made. No
definite information could be obtained from the neigh.
bouring farmers. No one seemed to know anything of the
outrage. Dogged and impenetrable reticence foiled the
investigations of the authorities on every side. No
opinion was expressed about the matter there was
no exultation, and no expression of regret. In con-
sequence of these difficulties there is yet no certainty
as to who were the perpetrators of the attack—
whether they were the family threatened with eviction,
net leg alone, or in combination with others, or total
strangers. The occurrence, it is hardly necessary to say,
has created the utmost excitement and alarm in the
neighbourhood. The suspicion exists that there is more in
the event than mere individual desperation stirred up by

the terrible prospect before the evicted peasant ; and it is
thought that the persons who committed the outrage may
have been incited to it by connection with a secret organi-
sation from whom succour and concealment may have been
expected ; otherwise the singular daring of the outrage,
the contempt it indicated for the law, and the stern de.
termination to oppose its execution, can hardly be
accounted for. The rapid and complete escape of the
tenants of the barn and their evasion of an extremely
active pursuit are only explicable on the same theory.
This impression has caused greater importance to be
attached to the affair than if it were treated as an isolated
individual outrage, and a corresponding amount of
vigilance and activity is being exhibited by the autho-
rities. A large police force has been concentrated in the
neighbourhood, and frequent and numerous searches
are prosecuted in every place where either a trace of
the criminals or of any other compromising matters

are suspected to be concealed. The vigilance extends
to the junction, which is under close surveillance, and
last night every railway passenger was subjected to a per-
sonal search. Mr. Scully has been conveyed to his own

residence near Dundrum, where he is under surgical
treatment. An inquest will be held to-day on the bodies

of the two unhappy policemen."
Another correspondent gives the following version of the
affair:—" Mr. Scully left Limerick Junction railway

station on Friday morning, with Gorman, his steward,
and Maher, a herd, escorted by Constables Maher, Kelly,
Cleary, Collison, Cahill, and Murrough. The party walked
down the line to the Ice House, and then took the fields
to cross to Ballycoohey, when some signals were given,
and a crowd numbering 100 or 310 persons assembled
on all sides. Mr. Scully, armed with a double-barrelled
breech-loader and a revolver, went with his steward and
herd from house to house to serve notices, the people mean,
while shouting out that they would have his life, and calling
him ' robber ' and `murderer.' After he had lunched,
the police advised him to return. He consented to do so
but on the way back he resolved to visit the house of a
tenant named Dwyer. A by-road leads to a quadrangular
farm-yard, on one side of which is Dwyer's house. At
right angles to the house, and facing the entrance, are
out-offices, and on the other sides arc hedges. All seemed
deserted. Mi. Scully, Gorman, and Maher first entered,
the constables remaining at the end of the by-road to keep
back the crowd. Two shots were immediately fired from
the dwelling-house, and a third, which killed Gorman,
from a rude porthole made in one of the out-offices. The
shots fired at Mr. Scully came from a loft over a
kitchen, where a feather-bed had been placed. He
received three wounds in the head, one ball passing
through his throat. Having tottered back to the lane,
he fired a revolver at the house. Cleary, calling on his
men, entered the enclosure end went into the kitchen,
which was empty, the party having escaped through a hole
in the thatch. Collison, finding Maher lying wounded,
stopped to lift him, and was shot from an outhouse in the
back of the head. Murrough was afterwards found dead in
an angle of the building. He was riddled with bullets, ono
having passed through the heart, Kelly was wounded in
the thigh. Mr. Scully, having entered the house and taken
from his steward some papers and a revolver, made
his way to the house of Mr. Bolton, Lord Derby's agent,
who shelAred him until he was escorted home to Ballina-
dough. From twelve to eighteen shots were fired. On
searching the buildings the police found a blunderbuss
burst, a five-barrelled revolver with two chambers dis•
charged, bullets, cartridges, and a brandy bottle half
full."

Further news is to the eact that eight persons were
arrested in the locality of the outrage, and lodged in Tip
!Denary gaol.

The inquest on the policemen killed at Dallycoohey was
held on Saturday. Constable Cleary described the affray
as having been brought on by Mr. Scully's persisting in 11'.8
service of notices after being advised by the police to
desist. The jury found an open verdict, adding that th 9
conduct of Mr. Scully towards the tenantry of Bally.
coohey was much to be deprecated, and that the sooner
legislative enactments were passed to put a stop to such
proceedings the bettor for the peace and welfare of the
country. Unqualified disapproval of the dealings of Mr.
Scully is everywhere (amused.