The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1883-02-27 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

SUPPOSED VISIT OF WALSH AND SHERIDAN TO BARROW. An Ulverston contemporary publishes the following :--•• John Walsh, who was implicated in the evidence of James Carey, is an Irishman, and lived for many years in Middlesborough. Some five or eight months ago, perhaps longer since, he paid a visit to Barrow, and there called upon some old hliddlesborough acquaintances of his, making particular enquiry for one with whom he had been somewhat intimate there, but who had recently emigrated to America. Walsh himself announced that he was on the point of having a trip across the Atlantic, and same months after it was stated in Barrow that he had returned from America, and had there met with the individual whom he had been so anxious to see when in Furness. Those who are acquainted with the details of the trial in connection with the Phoenix Park murders will be aware that it is alleged that Walsh went to Dublin to organise the assassination society, and that he was accompanied, and assisted in that diabolical scheme, by a person named P. J. Sheridan, I who was disguised as a priest, and who went I under the assumed name of Father Murphy. About the time that Walsh was in Barrow a strange man dressed like a priest was observed walking about the streets of that towr., and it was remarked by several persons that he was a most unpriestly looking man to be arrayed in such costume; indeed it was plainly asserted by some that he was a suspicious character. ' Some 18 months since or less, for the accounts as to the time strangely vary, a man in the habiliments of a priest, and calling himself Father Murphy, made his appearance, accompanied by another man, in Ulverston, and with him went the round of the Irish population in the town, with the ostensible object of collecting money from them under the following circumstances. Restated that he had had the charge of a church in Scotland, and that the Bishop had dismissed him from his pastorate because he had written a sympathetic letter of apology for his absence from a Land League meeting, and he desired to raise money for the purpose of going to Rome to lay his grievance before the Pope. The supposed priest also stated that he and hii friend had been collecting at Barrow an l were going back to that place: The description  of the man corresponds in important particulars, especially so far as a certain peculiarity of walk is concerned, with the description of the man dragged in clerical clothes who was seen hanging about Barrow The description of Walsh by certain people now living in Inverston who formerly lived in Middlesborough, precisely accords with the account of the man who was with the alleged Father Murphy in Ulverston. Of course, although the fact that Walsh was in Barrow about the time we have mentioned is well known in certain circles there, it is by no means certain that the two men who came here on the collecting expedition were the notorious Walsh and Sheridan, yet if this was not the case, the circumstances we have recorded certainly form a strange chain of coincidences analogous to those which have too frequently led to the conviction of innocent men.".  - . We believe, on good authority, that there is not the slightest evidence to suppose that the Father Murphy, who visited Barrow about the timg rnentimed and the man Sheridan are one and th 3 same person. Still it should be stated that the manner and dress, of the supposed priest would convey to a keen observer the idea that he was in disguise, and during the short time he was in Barrow he attracted much attention.