DANCE OF DEATH.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 211, 18 May 1909, Page 7

DANCE OF DEATH.

NOT KILLED, BUT TAKEN AWAY BY FAIRIES. A strange murder story was told to Mr Gardiner, the resident magistrate at Galway, recently. The accused are brothers — Michael and Bartley Coyne — and they are charged with the murder of James Bailey [at Lettermore on February 2. The district is far remote from town and railways, and among the people only 'the Irish language is spoken. On the night of the tragedy there was a dance at a house, the Coynes and Bailey being of the party, and there was an invitation to wrestle by Michael Coyne, which was accepted by Bailey. According to Mary Daly, at whose house the dance was held, Bailey asked Coyne to shake hands, but Coyne replied that hiwould neither give him the right hand nor the left, but would give it to him in the stomach. Bailey then took off his " bauneen," and both men went out. Coyne, she alleged, struck Bailey, knocked him down, fell on the top of him, struck him, and caught him by the throat. Bailey succeeded in getting on his feet, but was again knocked down. Bartley Coyne came out of the house and held Bailey while Michael beat him. She then alleged that they either throw him over the wall or knocked the wall on top of him. A stone found lying on the left side of the head of the dead man weighed more than 2cwt. Another witness said that while Michael Coyne was standing about 4yds from where the man lay he said : "My soul to the Devil, but if anyone tells what has happened to-night I will have their lives. Twenty-one years is a long time, but I will remember it if any person says anything about it. Let ye say it was the wall fell on him." Bailey's father stated that when he came on the scene Michael Coyne said to him: "Don't mind your son ; that is not him you see there. He is gone away, and I know well he is gone away." ' Bridget Bailey said that Michael had made the same remark to her, by which she understood that he meant that h*;r brother was away with the fairies, and that it was not he who was lying there. The prisoners were returned for trial at Galway Assizes.