Glasgow Courier. — 1848-03-16 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

DEPLORABLE SUICIDE.  The Sliqo Journal gives the following particulars of the awful suicide of Mrs. Armstrong :--A strong feeling of regret and horror pervaded the inhabitants of this town and vicinity on Saturday, the 4th inst., when the awful announcement was circulated of a mother (Mrs. Armstrong) having destroyed herself and her three children, by drowning, at the shore of Ballincar. The unfortunate lady was respectably connected—gifted with a mind superior to the ordinary mould, and suitably accomplished. She had been twice married, having teen in India with her first husband, Major Baines, by whom she had one child, who died soon after the decease of its father. On Saturday, the day after the melancholy catastrophe, an impulse led us to glance at the remains of the mother and two of her offspring, little girls, the other child (a boy) not having been then found—they were apparently interesting children. It was a heart-rending spectacle to behold, exhibiting in a painful and humiliating sense the unnatural havoc which a bereaved intellect can in a hapless moment conceive and accompllith. It is supposed the innocents perished ere the mother Song herself into the current. On Sunday, at three o'clock, an inquest was held on the body of Mrs. Armstrong nod her two children, by A. Burrows, Esq Coroner, Captain Whelan, R.M., Rt, WBride, Esq., Mayor; Doctor Burrows, and a respectable jury. The first witness examined was Mr. Michael M"fiernan of Sligo, brother to the deceased, who stated that he knew deceased and her husband to have lived amicably together until a very late period. On Thursday last, the 24th February, he received an anonymous letter at his house in Sligo, which induced him to proceed to the residence of the deceased at Ballincar. After his arrival much angry feeling was displayed, but in a very short time he effected (as he thought) a perfect reconci¢ thin between deceased and her husband. He then left the house very much satisfied, and heard nothing more of the parties until about eleven o'clock next morning, when deceased's servant came to his house, inquiring if her mistress was there; that she had lett home about two o'clock, and it was not known where she went to. About ton o'clock a.m., on the 26th, he heard of the melancholy occurrence. Miss Bossy M•Tiernan, sister to the deceased, examined—Lives in Sligo; on Friday, 26th, I received a letter from the detniaaed with some money; in the letter was a request that I would buy a dress for deceased's daughter, and keep it for her until ahe would be twenty years of age; I thought the request a strange one, and concluded she had left home, as she used to speak often of taking the children to France or America, for the purpose of having them reared up Catholics, deceased (to the best of her recollection) having before told her she would rather drown the children than have them reared up Protestants. Phelim Carroll proved be saw a woman drown herself, after walking on the shore with two children. The jury returned the following verdict That Mrs. Armstrong • drowned herself and her three children, while labouring under temporary insanity."