AN EVICTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 24, 5 October 1888, Page 29

AN EVICTION.

The special correspondent of the Dublin Freeman, writing from Kilrush, says :—: — To-day was devoted exclusively to the eviction ef Matthias Magrath, of Moyasta, and a stranger visiting the scene would have been bewildered by the extraordinary preparations made for accomplishing that purpose. The house itself is a small thatched building on the road between Ktlrush and Kilkee, and tbe picture presented by the hussars, the infantry, the police, the resident magistrates, emergancymen, army surgeon, and army ambulance to turn out the family was one of extraordinary suggestiveness. As on every day since the campaign commenced, every siiop in Kilrush had us shutters up, and the chapel bell tolled as tbe forces marched from Kilrush demense. The tenant was hard-working, steady, and respectable in all hit relations of lite, and a more pitiable or a more touching spectacle, putting aside even the merits of the case, never presented itself than that of bis houga and hotie being smashed to pieces to-day. The house having been reached, the usual cordon of infantry was stretched around the fields, tne hussars held the road, the police kept the neighbourhood clear of people, and whea possession was dema ,ded by the SierifE inure was scarcely anyone outside the forces to be seen. Voices w.-re heard insilj the house, a r nl tbe District-I ispector called, out— '• You who aie in there come out quietly and you won't bo interfered with." Tnis pioposition wa3 responded tv by a mau'a voice saying, " Ojme on Oroker, an Ido your worst, ' Mr. Crok^r, the sheriff, stood at the window with a new square shield, and some hot water was I pitched through the inteistices uf the bnrricade within. The police were ordered to draw thei.* batons, and they took their places around the ram. The first blow i f the beam Laving been given to it, the cry of " Back, away with them," wa=s answered inside by a shout, ■' Coma on, youfieud?.'" Theb-uncade must have been very firm, indeed, for it louk a lot of hammering before a hole was made in the wall. Tha sbauff took a mjbt active part in wjrking the ram ou this occasion, so much so thit he became puffjd and exuausted by his venement exertions. When the breach was at. length made a young man, Patrick Magrath, was seen standing ms.de in his shirt- sleeves. He call 'd out, "In with you now and meet me." Inspector Du.ining came over and appealed to him to come out. Mr. Croker gaid theie was not enough of tie wall down, and taking a hand at th 3 ropes, the ram wis worked ajain, and a big section of the front wall give way with, a crash. Mr. Cecil Roche, R.M., who hovdel around the opening, watching closely the movements of the man within, had a narrow escapj fiom a dose of water flung by a woman. Mr. Dunning asked thit the women should be sent out, and Magrath replied, 1" I'll fight for them, thank you ; come on now, and do your best." A pausa then tojk plase. l'tie bread was so wide, that one cjuld see the young man iuside, his right foot ou a block of broken debris, and his arms raise I befoie his face. Mr. Dunning once more said, '■ Come out."* Ma^iath answered, '■ 1 will die here if I must, but I won't come out till lam tak>;u. ' Auother pause followed, and the most painful feeling of anxiety must have been felt by everyone who looked on as to what was next to happen. The police had their batons ra.sad, md by tbe side of the breach Mr. Dunning, Mr. Hill, and a crowd, of constabulary men suddenly rushei over the heap of rubbish on to Ma^rath. Oae of the officers fell, and the crash of batons, the screams of the women, and the shouts of tha men, were* the sounds that then filled the air. Tne struggle within saemedtobe for the moment dreadful. Magrath laid about him with extraordinary vigour. He had stoics and mi-si e3 ot all sorts around him but he üb«d none of them. He struck out with his fists and fought with tho courage of a lion, but the numbers against him were more than a dozen b'.icb meu could cope with. He was seized and dragged to the opening, his head b'eelmg profuse] v. Twj women, a sister and auother girl, were also pulled Jout. Magrath still struggled wiih the strength ot a Iljrculep, and it apponred to me that Mr. Dunning restrained the disposition of two or three ot his men who ieemed anxious to twist the arms of their priso'ier. He was carried, or rather pushed over the edge opposite, looking the picture of a caged lioa. Id was a horrid Bign: ; the blood trickling down his face, the police holding on to his arms, theories and mian* of his mother, combined \u make it fjr the lime feiriully exciting. Dr. Couuihan and the army-burgeon attended him and dresse I his woand^, whica were happily not serious. The prisoner was remanded until Monday. Several lomewhat exciting scenes werejenacted during and af^er the eviction. The crowd which had collected on and near the road were charged by the police, but no oue was much hurt. Magrath was placed in the centre of a guard of con u tables and marched to Kilrush. As ha turned the road from his former house a cheer waa raised, and he twisted the

handcuffs *o that they broke like tin or cardboard, and he stretched out to sbak* hands with a friend. As the iron cuffs were falling he kicked thorn as he would a football, but he was seized, his hands put behind bis back and again secured. Hs was then taken to Kilrusb, 'uarded by the hussars, the infantry, and police, and bronght, strange xfjtay, to Mr. Vandeleur's house, wnere he was kept till evening, and ffcn taken with the youth charged with stone-throwing to the bridewell. The procession to the town, headed by the advance guard of hassars, the redcoats, the police, and a long line of cars, formed a most remarkable Biertat as it wound its way down to the town. The military had a fife player, who played a variety of marching tunes. The constabulary, in the absence of a fife, whistled " St. Patrick's Day," and the " Regular Army, O," and the sun shining down on the cavalcade as it moved by the back roads to Kilruah House, having succeeded in turning oat one tenant, brought into relief one of the most striking scenes in which the British army and her Majesty's civil force have ever been engaged. To-morrow the evictions will be resumed.