Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1882-08-26 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

TERRIBLE MURDERS IN IRELAND. A FAMILY MASSACRED.  ! On Thursday night week a party of mm n broke. jet° the dwelling of a farmer . named Joyce, and shot six of the inmates. . Five of the,e are dead,---narne'y, Joyce, the farmer, his wife, his mother, his daughter, and one of iris sons. The other, also a son of Joyi e's, was dangerously wounded. The unfortunate victims lived under the same roof at Matautra.na Finney, a remote country place on the confilies of Galway and Mayo, ar,cl close to an estuary of Lough Mask, beneath whose waters were 1 found Some months ago the murdered 1 bodies of Lord Ardilaun's bailffs, Handy, and his son. The crane is generally attributed to agrarian motives, but it is reported by some that Joyce was suspected of having given the police information in relation to the murder it the two bailiffs. The house presented a most shocking -eight , The bodies of Joyce and hie wife, mother, daughter. tir e. imn lay on the floor of the cabin riddled with bullets, and thaugled SS if from the effect of heavy . blows with a hammer or some similar instrument. The surviving member of the family, a boy of twelve, statad that the assassins were di-guised, and that the party consisted of about four or five men. Joyce belonged to the small farming class. He was wretchedly poor, but bore the reputation of being very industrious and inoffensive. He and his wife weie both aged about fifty, and the daughter was a girl of twenty. The poor -old mother was over eighty years of age. In connection with the tragedy in Couiremare, the police made two additional arrests on Sunday night, making in all fifteen per- . SODS taken into custody. One of thcse. however, has been liberated. A lengthened investigation was held on Monday by the resident magi,trates, the proceedings of which were strictly private. The result, however, was that the fourteen prisoners were removed to Galway Gaol, where another magisterial investigation will be held. The boy Patrick Joyce, who is under treatment at Coug, continues to improve in strength. The funeral of his father, mother, grandmother, sister, and brother triott place on Monday, the bodies being interred in a little oemetery on the elope or tire mountain which cuts off Maamtrastra from the open region lying towards fiallinrobe. Mrs Joyce, the wife, was buried with the remains of her first husband, all the others haing interred in one grave. About a htiudred of the mountain people attended the funeral, which is not usual in the case of peop:e 1 murdered.  - - Some evidence of the greatest iaiportance has been obtained by the police as to the murderers of the Joyce family at Connemara. A farmer and his brother saw a party of ten men on their way to Joyce's coon), and watched them closely from places of concealment. They saw them enter the cabin eit the unfortunate family, and b, ard the shots and the cries of the victims. The witnesses of this dreadful crime are able to identify the whole of the band. Another wilness a short time previously overheard four of the men talking together about killing the Joyce-i. The inquest On the bodies of the Joyce family was resumed on Wsduesday, and resulted in a verdict of " Wilful murder against some persons unknown." Dr. Begarty, in reply to a juror, stated that the wounds to the heads of the victims were undottotedly inflicted with bludgeons or other blunt instruments, no knives being u.ed. Bullets were found in the bodies of some of the victims.