Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-28
USE OF FIREARMS FAST
SPREADING IN IRELAND
CONVICTIONS FOR 0UTRAGES
ARE FEW
Charged That Molly Maguires Are
Revived Under the Name of
Ancient Order of Hi.
bernians

DUBLIN, March 27.-Some strong
comments on the state of Ireland were
made by Justice Wright at the Clare
assizes.
Bartholomew MacNamara, a young
| laborer, was charged with an offense
under the Whiteby acts, passed in the
eighteenth century for the suppression
of outrages. Evidence was given by
Mrs. Doyle, whose husband was herder
on a boycotted farm on the Bentley
estate, that she saw MacNamara fire
revolver outside her house. Police
| evidence showed that constables who
went in the direction whence the shots
were fired met MacNamara and others,
whom they searched. They found n
revolver containing five empty cart
ridges in a field by the roadside.
The Judge commented on the wide
spread use of firearms. He had been
| informed, he said, that revolvers could
| be purchased for few ShillingS, and
a rifle that would carry 1000 yards for
1Ss Cd. The habit of carrying fire.
arms was a dangerous one, and he did
not know of anything fraught with
greater danger to the public peace.
Eventually the jury acquitted Mac
Namara.
In a second case Pat Stephens was
similarly charged. A farmer named
John Moloney swore that he saw
| stephens IRE d I6NOlNSI cilOl All thC
road in front of his house and subse-
quently fire a number of shots about
the house.
Head Constable Coffee gave evidence
as to the disturbed state of the Broad
ford district. The place was full OF
revolvers, he said, and people coming
home from market fired them along
the roads.
In the village of Broadford itself, re-
Gently, fifteen or sixteen shots were dis
charged by opposing parties at opposite
ends of the village, and constable
who got in the line of fire was wounded.
A Pitched Battle
Justice Wright said the head con-
stable had given a graphic account
of pitched battle, in which one con-
stable who, in the discharge of his
duty, tried to, get between the par
| ties. 1t was a deplorable state OF
things that almost every person in
Broadford went about carrying a re-
volver, and the only conclusion, to his
mind, was that Bradford was a very
good place to live out Of.
The jury also acquitted Stephens.
In the third case, in which a man
named Keidy was charged with an at
| tack on the house of man named
Mcmahon, a son of the latter said he
| recognized the accused by the flash OF
the gun which he fired into the house.
District Inspector McClelland said that
the district was disturbed. Eight
| dwelling houses had been fired into in
this locality in the year 1908, and there
had been cases of threatening letters,
malicious injuries and manning of cat
tie. Keidy was also acquitted.
Nine men of the farming class,
charged at Athenry with shouting,
Of intimidating Michael Ryan, the
young son of Mrs. Ryan, who holds
an eVicted farm on the Clanricarde es-
tate, near Craughwell, were held in 500
bail each. The farm in question is that
on which Constable Goldrick was MUIR
dered on January %.
| Mysterious signs and passwords are,
according to Tim Healy, K. c.. NJ. p,
the means by which members of the
| Molly Maguires distinguish each other
Mr.. Healy described the society and
it's methods before the divisional police
magistrate in Dublin, and declared that
| more than 200 of the Mollies armed
with lockwood bludgeons, came from
Belfast to terrorize the recent Irish
national convention in Dublin.
Secret Societies
Mr.. Healy appeared as counsel for
Eugene Cream, NJ. p, who charges Jo-
! seph DeVlin, NJ. p, and Denis Johns
| ton, secretary of the United Irish
league, with instigating an assault on
| him at the convention, and with or
ganizing a plot to disturb the orderly
| proceedings at the convention. The lat
ter charge is made under the public
meetings act.
The proceedings arise out of the
scene when William O'Brien and his
followers were howled down and Mr..
Cream, it is alleged, was assaulted.
Mr.. Devlin is the chairman of the An
cient Order of Hibernians, which its
enemies allege has no connection with
the great American friendly society of
| that name. Mr.. O'Brien and his friends
declare that it is a revival of the Molly
Maguires which became infamous for
the crimes of it's members in Ulster in
the middle of the last century.
Mr.. Healy declared that the question
was whether public men could take
part in their public duties only at the
will of the Molly Maguires. Public
men in Ireland" he said. ARE deter
mined that they will not take their or
| ders from Joseph Devlin and the Molly
| Maguires They are determined to put
down this infamous system of tyranny
which eventuated in the recent rutfian-
ism in the Mansion House, and to ex-
pose it to the public gaze.
1.-THE whole of the ruffianism came
from Belfast, the tickets were print
| ed in Belfast, the bludgeon-men came
from Belfast, and Joseph Devlin repre-
scented Belfast. Mr. Delvin, for some
furtive purpose, galvanized into Ger.
| tain parts of Ireland the remnant of
| the ancient Molly Maguires' faction
| and dubbed them The Ancient Order
of Hibernians.'
Mr. Healy quoted the language of
| n aptan ma storal nv Cardinal LOgIle