IRELAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 556, 26 July 1862, Page 2

IRELAND.

(From the Hoiiic Xtia.) A'IKATUAN OUTRAGES.

Agrarianism in Ireland oneo iii.re raises its red hand. As of old, the alarm is conii'iod tj certain districts, and they are .someofthonc whbh were formerly vKiied most frequently by the Mine spirit of evil. Tipporary au.l Llmeriuk.no oMraunrc s>t lined with bloodshed in open day, under circumstances the most painfully revolting to c\cry sev.^c ot security and peace.

The first of the appalling outrages whWi we have to report thi i month took place near Oashel. The victim, I\l. Gubtave Thiebault, wru a Fieneh gentleman, who, in conjunction with a brother, had purchased property in Tippciary tliiough the instrumentality of the Landed E-t-ites Court. H» is paid to Lave been uniformly considerate in lite dealings with the tensnits, but about two months n«o he found it nectissaiy to evict the occupiers of a certain hoMin-r, and tike the laud into his own p'^se^inn. Per this enforcement of his lights he wa> threatened in the usual form, and on the 28th of April the menaces of his crenres were carried into execution. Within half a mi'e of hid own gate he was foully murdered. A blow with a heavy pitchfork inflicted from behind split open his skull, the contents of a double-barrelieil gun which he was carrying were .sent through his heart, and then his head and face were hacked to pieces as he lay dead. This horrid butchery wa* perpetrated on the high road in open day, at a spot via ble for miles round, and within th« hearing of men at work. It occuncd probably about 4 o'clock in the akernoon, but the police, though thciewas a station within three miles ot the place, got no infoim.ation sill nearly 5 hours had elapsed. In the evidence taken at the inquest it appealed as if the crime had been all but actually witne-sed. One deponent passed the deceased on the road as he was speaking to some man, heard shot^ a few minutes afterwards, turned round, and ?&\v a man running away. Another witness also heird shots, haw the hinoke of a nun, aud observed a man beating something as it lay on the road. This ho took to be somebody killing a hare. The unfortunate victim, though an Irish landlord, was neither an Irishman nor . n Englishman, nor a Protestant. Pie was a most devout Catholic, fresh to the country, and well disposed, we are told, to work with all around him in improving the condition of the property and it'j occupiers. The clergy lost no time in testifying their indignation at the deed. The Iloman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel addressed a letter of condolence to the victim's widow, and his obsequies were celebrated with extraordinary solemnity. Fifteen priests said mass in the private chapel wheie the corpse was lying, and at 11 o'clock on the morning of % the funeral a solemn office for the dead was performed in the presence of a great multitude, deeply impressed with the scene. All this is naturally taken to indicate that the clergy are placing themselves in active opposition to the Kiband system, under which these crimes are perpetrated, and strong hopes are entertained that the_ influence of the priesthood may prevail even against the terrorism of the s-eeiet societies. But an incident of more immediate importance remains yet to benoticed. The witness who had first observed a man in conversation with the deceased, then heard the report of the gun, and then saw a man rumii.i"away, declared positively that he could not tell who this man was. Upon this the coroner, with great judgment, locked him up for the night, and when oil the" following day he wan brought forward ajrain he told another story. He admitted that he could identify the man in question, aud that it was, in fact, no other than one of the tenants who had boon evicted at the beginning of the year. Against this man, therefore, who is in custody, a verdict of •' Wilful Murder" was returned by the coroner's jury. The above was quickly followed by another foul murder, also committed in Tippu-ary. The victim this time wa« not a landlord, but n tenant. On the G.h of May a respectable Jarmer, u.imed M-i^uire, was passing along me mad near Giunuower when he was barbarously murdered. His body w.is found dead about four hours after the act had been committed. It presented a frightful spectacle ; tlu throat was cut, and he had bt'cu stabbed in several p! tcs. There was a wound on the ner-k resembling ,i gunshot innrk. '-There i* no doubt,*' says th<* Dublin corrwpondent of the Times, "that the horrid deed was done in pursuance ol a decree of the iiiband Society. Probably his doom was fixed, the executioner appointed, and his wages was paid to him at the snme time that the sentence of di-atli was pronounced upon M. Thiebault. It is understood i hat the person selected to be the assassin fails to execute the commission at the risk of his own life. Ribandism has but one punishment for every offence— death infli"ted under circumstances of atrocious barb nty. Poor Maguire had a short time ago taken a faun, from which a, man named Kennedy had boon evicted."' Kennedy was arrested near the place where the murder was committed. A bloody knife was found in im room.

lii a Dublin letter of the Bih May we reaJ :—" If the recent murders in Tipjwr.ti-y were orJoied by tlie Riband Society it has change'! its pr.xeticj with regard to the selection of agents. Formerly a man from a distance, unknown in the neighbourhood of the destined victim, was lined to execute the sanguinary de ■cree, the parties whoso alleged grievances were avenged remaining in the background. If the police are right ia their suspicions, the persons, who were

evicted fioin their hoi din_«s have done the work of vengeance them^-lves. Halloran has been identified as the murderer of M. Thiebault, and Kennedy, the evicted tenant, \\m bean arrested on suspicion for the minder of Mr. Maguhe. It might be inferred from this fact that tlu»re is no Riband organisation in that district to pay hired assassins, or that revenge burnt so fiercely iv the heart of the a-.sass ; n that Tie felt a diabolical satisfaction iv destroying the man whom he regarded as hib enemy. In any cose, the assassins have grown bold and reckless in consequence of their fancied impunity, secured by a rei^n of terror over the peab.ii ntiy. In all the recent ca^ej we might suppose that theie were opportunities of committing the crime in darkness, and secrecy. But there secmi fco have been almost a desiro f>r publicity on the part of M, Thicbaulli's) a^saj s in, and apparently the same confidence of impunity iv the ca^.3 of Mr. Maguire's murderer."

The scene of the next crime was the county Limerick, ai. I the victim was a landed proprietor named Mr. Fi.mois Fitzgerald, who was shot deal in the broad daylight on May 16. The unfortuuate man was iv his own hall, and was said to be talking to hi? wife when he received the fatal wound. The murderers did not psiapj. Two men who were sej 1 to tire the gun and then to make oft", were noticed by a clerical student who happened to be there at the time ; one of them was secured and lodged in gaol.

A letter from Dublin, dated May 10, says : — "' N" cause has been ass>i?ned for the murder of Mr. Fii.'sterald. He was walking with Mrs. Fitzgerald, wh n he was confronted in two men, undisguised, win jumped ov'r a ditch aiul fired at him simultaneously, one ball lo.lging in the victim's neck aiul the otlur penetrating the luu^.>. Ho lingered in s^reat a^ony till ;8; 8 o'clock, about four hours, when he expiral. The deceased was a young man, and only a short time married. An inquest was hell on the bo-ly on Saturday (May 17), at which the wife of the deceased was examined, ami swore th.it her husband was shot in her presence, about haif-p'ist 3 o'ulo \ the previous evening, by two persons avmeJ with yi-tols." A later communication contains the following: — " The funeral of Mr. Fitzgerald was attended by large numbers of the gentry of the county and city of Limerick. The carriages and cars extended over a mile of the road. Mr. Fitzgerald was only nine months married. It te said that he and his wife, who is young and beautiful, were greatly attached to each other. At the iiujue.st .she was not only positive in identifying, but vehement in accusing the prisoner, ■as the person who fired the first shot. This ease furnishes an instructive illustration of the ticket-of-leave system. The prisoner, Thomas Beckham, belonged to that neighborhood originally. He is said to have been engaged in no less than eight murders, or attempts tj murder. He was tried for the murder of a mail named Hurloy, but escaped through an informality in the indictment. He had been sentenced to 11 years' penal servitude, seven of which he served, and he manage 1 to get the remaining seven remitted, and retur..e I home with a ticket of leave. His companion. who c c name is said to be Walsh, is al&o a ticket-of-!eave man. They were bUh strangers, and bad probably never j seen or heard of Mr. Fitzgerald till they were hired to do the dreadful work. It id a curio'is coincidence that, like M. Thiebault, he was packing up to leave the neighborhood that nighi/," (A minute investigation int) the circumstances attending the murder of Mr, Fitzgerald was held on the 2')tli May, at Kilmallock, at which the Crown Solicitor of Limerick attended. Some important discovery has been made by the police, who, on searching tho premises where the prisoner Beckham resided, discovered three pistols, one of them wanting a ramrod, and tli.it found where tho deceased \v;is shot tits the pistol exactly. Wals.li, the accomplice of Beckham, continues to evade the polife, but, from the arrangements that arc being ma le, it is almost impossible he can escape. A few mornings ago letters wore received through the post-otiico b> Messiv. Daniel F. Leahy and WilIhnii Galgey, landed proprietors in the county of Cork, of the most frightful character, containing throats of assassination, and bedaubed with rude drawing of pistols, colllns, and death's-heads and crossbones. Letters ol" a similar character were received by the wives of thes-3 gentlemen, whose alaim aud anxiety of miirl can be easily conjectured. The laatter was at once wade known to the authorities, and an investigation was held during the day in the magistrates' private room at the police-court. It was thought ad\isal>lo that the hi<[uiry should be strictly private for the pre«unt. The whole cause ot displnasure knoivn to be givea by these gentlemen is, that Mr. Leahy lccei.tly sold, and Mr. Galgeypur-eh-ased, the property c .l!od Lc&pcuns, within six miles lof Cork. It is rcpoi led several other persons, land j agents and other ■>, in the same county, nave received notices of a m -lilar character.

The Pn.it, of the 2°« d May, publishes the following from Dublin :—": — " The landholder's whom the Ribbon Society has now menaced are— Mr. Bianconi, the celebrated car proprietor, of Longtield ; Mr. Cardo'n, of Barnnne ; Mr. John Newman Beamish, agent for Captain Smith Barry, at Middletou ; and Mr. Riclul. Phillips, of Gaile, whose property adjoins Mr. Bianconi's. A laud steward also, in the same quarter, has received a warning. Three of these outrages have happened near where M. Thiebauk foil. Two men w.alkrd np to Mr. Bianconi, in the open day, and told him he had been warned for the third and last time. He might now prepare his coflin. He had, it i • said, raised the real on some tenants. A rumour is prevalent that an a^ent to the Earl of Limerick has been shot.' '