The Weekly Gazette for Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Cleveland District. — 1883-02-17 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

UNMASKING A BROTHERHOOD. Assumnso that the evidence given on Saturday in the Kilmainham Courthouse by Michael Kavanagh is not a tissue of lies—and in several material particulars it corroborates the statements made by other informers, and is itself borne out in points by several witnesses who are presumably disinterested—Justice has under lock and key the actual murderers of Lord Frederick Cavendish and the brutal desperadoes who attempted the life of Mr Field. Kavanagh confesses that he, being a member of the Secret Brotherhood, was the car-driver who drove the as,assins into the Park. On the day of the murder, according to his story, he was at several publichouses, including the Royal Oak in Park Gate-street, from which place he drove four men, three of wlyni were prisoners at the bar—Joe Brady, Tim Kelly, and Pat Delatiey—into the Park. The fourth man lie could not identify. The fourth man, however, was al rested on Saturday night. The murderous expediiien was subsequently swelled by the accession of James Carey and Fitzharris—two more prisoners. It does not appear that Kavanagh can directly inculpate any of the men now in custody as the actual assailants of Lord Frederick and Mr Burke. He did not see the attack (so he says), but he did hear an agonising cry of "Oh," and on looking round saw one ge,,tleman fall, and another rai-e his umbrella. But it is eminently significant--always assuming, for the purposes of allusion. that Kavanagh is not a perjurer—that the men whom the carman drove so hurriedly from the horrible scene were the three men identified, and the fourth, just taken into custody, who were conveyed earlier in the day from the public-house in Park Gate-street. The informer further detailed the route taken ' by the car after leaving the Park, and informed the Court that for his services he received £3 and a set of harness. As bearing upon the deposition of Kavanagh, it should not escape observation that three presumably disinterested witnesses, George Mottley. hatter, Chapel. street, Dublin; Thomas Cummins, pawnbroker, Dublin; and Samuel Jacob, Dublin, supplied strong links in the chain of evidence that is being wrought against the criminals. Michael Kavanagh says that he was at a public-house in Damestreet on the day of the tragedy; George Mottley and Thomas Cummins speak corroboratively. Kavanagh describes the , progress of the vehicle down Chapelizodroad, and the route afterwards taken; a description verified on oath by Samuel Jacob. Kavanagh, in another section of his statement, alleges that he was the carman who drove Brady and Delaney to Hardwicke-street on the day Mr Field was attacked ; that they were there joined by Kelly and Hanlon; that he, Kavanagh, heard a "cry ;" and that, almost simultaneously, Brady and Kelly—Delaney and Hanlon being left behind—mounted his car and were driven off. The informer also incriminates himself as having driven a vehicle holding Brady and Kelly to Annestreet, where Delaney and "another" were met just before the attack on Judge Lawson. It would be affectation to ignore the fact that the lives of many of the prisoners are jeopardised by the alleaa tions of those who, either through inclination or temptation, have chosen to desert the Secret Brotherhood of Crime; and it is to be hoped that the grave accusations made against their late comrades by men like Kavanagh, who, on their own showing, are themselves steeped in guilt, will be rece: ved with an amount of reserve until the prisoners have had a fair opportunity of disproving their alleged participation in a series of murders and attempted murders that have degraded Ireland in the eyes of the civilised world. Possibly Mr Carey and Mr Mullett may be able to give satisfactory reasons for maintaining a private arsenal and keeping mysterious books and papers. It is also possible that counsel for the defence may clearly establish that Brady, Kelly, Delaney, Carey, and Fitzharris were never in Phoenix Park, hardvricke - street, or Annestreet on the dates of the outrages associated with the three places named. In the meantime the authorities ' at the Castle are dissecting the evidence of those men who have turned Queen's evidence, with the view of obtaining corroborative testimony of an unimpeachable quality, and less open to the attacks of the counsel for the defence. Kavanagh, it will not be overlooked, swears that when admitted to the Brotherhood he was told by Doyle, one of the prisoners, that a Jot of "big people" were attached tO the organ.