The Pontypridd District Herald and Rhondda Valley, Llantrisant, Caerphilly, and Mountain Ash News. — 1892-11-05 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

TRAGEDY IN IRELAND.  FIVE PERSONS MURDERED.  Information reached Dublin on Tuesday of a terrible tragedy which has been enacted at the police barrack, Ballinadrusnua, county Kildare. Particulars were supplied, as contained hi a telegram received from Enfield by Sir Andrew Reed, Inspector General of Constabulary, as follows : "Sergeant Rogan, his wife and three children were murdered last night by Constable Pilkington, of the same station, who shot himself, after attempting to set fire to the barrack in several places. Four other children are in a dangerous condition, having been batoned by the constable. One is not expected to survive. No other men are at the station exoept the sergeant and the constable." The first intimation received at the constabulary office in Dublin was that the sergeant, his wife, a child, and the constable were murdered at BAllinadrumna, a police station, and that an attack had been made on the barrack. Afterwards a telegeam arrived saying that the , statement that there had been an attack on the barrack was unfounded, that two children were killed instead of one, and that it was suspected the murders were the act of Constable Pilkington, who afterwards committed suicide; but the telegram given above is said to be the correct version of the affair. A Dublin correspondent says :—The station at which the tragedy took place is situate at Bah linadrumna, a country place on the borders of Meath and Kildare, about two miles from Moyvalley, and close also to Enfield. Sergeant Rogan has been stationed at the place for some time past, and he, with his wife and 7 uhildren, lived in the barrack. There were also a: ationed in the place three constables, and it ie surmised that two of them were on patrol duly, and that Pilkington was acting as barrack orderly when the murders took place. The sergeant had been 22 years in the service, and Constable Pilkington had served for 10 years, and was unmarried. Both men were of excellent character, Pilkington especially, being a man against whom no unfavourable marks were ever recorded. What his motives were for committing this terrible crime it is impossible to say at present, but the impression in official circles is that the man was suffering from &sudden fit of insanity at the time. The news reached the constabulary offiee here at 11 o'c ock, and by the next available train to Moyvalley Assistant Inspector-General Whelan, accompanied by Mr. Hurley, private secretary to the Inspector-General, and Dr. Gordon, the principal official surgeon of the corstabulary force, started far the scene. The divisional commissioner, Captain Stokes, with County Inspect,pr Luck and other officers, also repaired to the place. The inquires made satisfied these officials that there was no foundation for the suggestion at Naas that the murders were the acts of the inhabitants of the place, who it was said had attacked the barrrack. A later te:egrarn says that Pilkington on Mon• day night entered a bedroom in the barracks in which Sergeant Rogan and his wife, with some of their children, were sleeping, anti that he at once shot the father and mother dead and them battered the children's heads with his brl.;on. Then followed the attempt to fire the barrack, and Pilkington's suicide.