The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-03-11
JUSTICE TN IRELAND.
Barbarous Treatment of Suffering
Fishermen.
THEY RESISTED TIE EvIoToRs,
And as q Result Were Obliged to
Walk Thirteen Miles Through q
Binding Storm for the Purpose of
Appearing at Court.

Binding Storm for the Purpose of
Appearing at Court.
LONDON, March II. - story has
reached here that has caused many ex-
pressions of deep Indignation by the En-
lish papers. To the westward of County
Mayo, Ireland, there lies in the Atlantic
a small patch of land known as Clare
island. The inhabitants are mostly fish
ermen, and are miserably poor. Anum-
Der of them ran into debt, and their cred
itors took legal proceedings against
them, and sent bailiffs to seize the few
cattle owned by the debtors to satisfy
the claims against them.
The islanders resisted the bailiffs, and
as result eighty of them were sum
moned to answer at Louisburg, the
nearest town on the mainland in County
Mayo, for resisting the officers of the
law. The eighty islanders obeyed the
summons and presented themselves be-
fore the magistrate. They all appeared
to be III starving condition, and their
thin garments afforded them little pro-
lection against the Indictment weather.
Fell by the Roadside.
The magistrate listened to the testi-
mony of the bailiffs, and then calmly
ordered the further hearing of the case
be had the next day at the court house
in Westport, thirteen miles distant. To
reach Westport in time for the hearing
it was necessary for the islanders to
start that night. They had no money
to pay for conveyances, and were COM
PEELED to walk the entire distance over a
road that is none too good in fine
weather. That night a binding snow
storm set in. The road runs alongside
the ocean, and the poor people stumbling
along in the darkness were exposed to
the full fury of singing gale that
swept inland from the sea.
Many of the poorly clad islanders,
weakened by their long absence from
nourishing food, fell by the wayside, I'M
able to proceed further, and would have
persisted had it hot been for the kind
hearted villagers along the route.
The Magistrates Indignant.
OF the women in the party not single
one had strength enough to drag her
weary limbs to Westport. The men
who reached the town at once proceeded
to the court house and presented them
selves before the magistrates there sit
ting to bear the case. Many of the
islanders were almost completely ex-
hausted by their long and terrible jour
ney, and all Of them were fanlished and
half frozen.
When the magistrates learned that
all the persons summoned were not pres
ent they were incensed at what they
We're pleased to term disrespect Of the
law. They held forth ut great length
upon the strong arm of the law, and how
ALL rich and poor alike, were amenable
to its provisions.
Then they spoke of the great good
ness of the crown, how it tempered
justice with mercy, and after dwelling
upon this subject, to the painful editica-
ton of the shivering wretches before
them, they announced that as the de-
PENDANTS had pleaded guilty to the
charge against them the crown would
extend its clemencv to them. The court
then ordered that the men be liberated
upon giving bail for their good be-
havior.
The dispatch does not state whether
the bail demanded was furnished, but
as the islanders We're not known in
Westport, and as they have nothing of
value of their own, the probabilities are
that the bonds were not furnished,