IRISH FARMHOUSE TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 15, 17 January 1914, Page 17

IRISH FARMHOUSE TRAGEDY.

' 2L TERRIBLE CRIME; OB__D, MOTHEB, AND -GRANDFATHER SHOT,. 'A lamp was burning brightly in the kitchen of the old homestead, near the ■town of Athlone, on Saturday evening. November 20th. Mrs CougMan was sitting .by the cheery blazing fire, her little baby jieaceiftdly asleep on her lap. It was a happy domestic picture. But all unknown to her, with stealthy footsteps, an armed man bent on foul and evil purpose was | approaching in 'tie outer darkness. He stopped," took cool and deliberate aim, and fired -through the window. The kitchen, which a moment before was a setting for so Ideal a scene, was littered with the dead and dying. There were nine pellets found afterwards la" the light side of the body,' and two had entered -the heart. It was a mercy that the little one's death was instantaneous. The poor mother received a full blast of pellets in tie face. But .the desperate work of the murderer •was not yet -completed. An old man came as hurriedly to the scene as ibis limbs could carry him. He set off for aid for his strickesi da-lighter. -The next that was 6eeai of Mm was when, lv .the breaking daylight of .(lie morning, his .body, riddled with -bullets, was found In a drain. The victims of the tragedy—one of the 'most appalling that ever stained the annals of rural life in Ireland—are: Thomas I-tickey, ijarnrer anti old age pensioner (mardered); Mrs Coughlau, 'Hic_ey's dauffliter (dying); Mrs Congihlarn's infant (murdered), all of whom resided at ICilga-rtn, five miles from Athlone. The crime had aril the colour of premeditated murder deliberately and coM-Moodedly executed. Underlying it was that most fruitful source of tragedy in Ireland —-the disputed possession of a few acres of land. John Hiekey, a man of forty-rfive, is, now under arrest, charged with the murder ot rbis ifather and the child, and with wounding his sister. The accused man spent two years of his life in America. He set envious eyes on the holding owned by his aged father, with whom lived in the little farmhouse his daughter and her husband, Kiernan Courghlan, and their little baby, born eighteen months ago. When Coughlan came to live with the Hockeys the accused would no longer stay under the old roof, 'but began to erect a dwelling of his own on the ten acres portion of the farm that •was allotted to him. Into the former .peaceful and uneventful existence of the little County Wcstmeatli family there was introd-ucod all the distracting elements of a protracted lawsuit. The position of a sub-tenant under his father was to Hiekey intolerable. There were disputes about the rent, which 'Hiekey, jun„ it is said, Teftrsed to pay. The County Court Judge had the troubles of the family before him. At .first the litigation went In favour of the sou, and he was elated. Coughlan, however, entered an appeal. Wrhat- is thought to be the sequel of it all came in the awful manner described. ■Mrs Coughlan was removed to Athlone Hospital in the last faint hope of saving her life. District-Inspector Teates, Head-Constable •Feeney, Sergeant "Wilson, and a strong force of police from Athlone, went in search of John Hiekey, whom they found and placed under arrest on a charge of murder. The "West 'Meath Coroner subsequently opened an inquest ou the baby ■child of Kiernan Coughlan and also on Thomas Hiekey, the grandfather of the child, when a verdict of murder was returned.