MURDERS IN IRELAND

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2661, 17 October 1882, Page 3

MURDERS IN IRELAND

I_PEBSB ASSOCIATION TBLEOIiAir

[Per «.(. Australia, at Auckland,] Ab a picturo of the condition of Western Ireland, the special correipondent cf the “Iti»h Times” seeds a graphic ecccuat of tha murder of the Joyce family. The locality in which it was committed lies in the wildeai and loneliest district in tbs most remote regions of the Oonnty cf C-musmtra, and is almost inaccessible owing to the mountain fastnesses and miles of lake around which it ie situated. The land hero form? a portion of tha estate of Colonel Clements, whose tenantry in Joyce’s country, numbering soma three or four hundred, hare, with cno or two trifling exceptions, not p-.id one ting la farthing of rent during tha last three year* John Joyce wan one of these tenants, Hb was forty-five years of age, and some time ago hold a farm from the murdered Kail of Leitrim, but had been evicted in 1877, then being a widovrsr with four children. Ha married a. poor widow, who shared his iragu fate. She was at the time of tho wedding ia possession of a farm at Maamtrasme, and since then he had lived peacefully on tho farm. His mother, Margaret Joyce, wm eighty-five yean of age, and his daughter Margaret Joyce eighteen, fcis sons Michael Joyce sixteen, and Patrick Joyce eleven, residing in the same house with him end his vrita Bridget. The eldest son, Martin, ayoungmnu of twenty, lived at Olonbury, being servant in tho employment of Gee. Rare, farmer, and to this circumstance he owes his eroape from being one cf tha victims of tho bloody tragedy.- It appears the Joyce fr.mily retired to bed afrths usual hour, John Joyce and hie wife #1- epiog on a miserable little bed composed of rags and straw, and placed in a slight recess ia the wall a few feet from, the door, on the loft hand fide as the cabin is entered. Tho rest of tho family slept ia the inner apartment, tha old woman and one of her grandsons lying with their heads towards the little window, and Msrgar t. and her other brother lying in the contrsry directionBy this means it was sought to caablo the four occupants of one bed to find room on tho couch, which was so tmall that it had even to ho lengthened by the placing of a barrel, end uppermost, at the foot of tha bed. All was quiet for the first few houre, and nothing occurred to disturb the repose cf the sleepers till about one o’clock ia tho morn--ing, when, as Michael related with his dying breath, hs heard shots. The door was lifted off tha hinges, and a number of armed »i!Bs,i»ias peuredinto tha cabin. The fa’.hrr was shot on the floor, having sprung cal of bed. The wife was bludgeoned to death, end then the inner room was entered. The feeble old grandmother was attacked, and her skull was crushed by a rain of blows, which left tho bone, blood, and brain one rod mass of pulp. Michael was shot in tho hesd and the stomach, and his sister was struck on tho head by a blow which left her a corpse, and Patrick, tho younger child, wsa badly hasten over tha head and face with a slick. To do their hellish work with grotter <w»tsinty and more despatch, tho murderers lighted the room with a blazing piece of bog deal. Having completed the:r bloody ana cruel murders, they departed, dimnpairi'.'.g in the darkness from the scene where they had wrought such inhuman slaughter. Michael, wounded fatally and his bowels protruding thiough a bullet hole in tho stomach, crawled out of the bed in which lay tha corpses of his grandmother and his sister, and wont to the kitchen Lr a drink of water to quench the burning thirst that parched hia lips and added greatly to the agony ho endured. He found his father lying dead on the floor, and his stepmother dying in her bod. Terrified, faint, and afraid to return to that horrible bed reeking with gore, ghastly with the dead, he had left in the inner room, and trembling with dread to remain by the naked corpse of hi* father, feeling pangs of death himself, ho crept in by the side of his father's wife. She lay meaning, but though her head sad face had been beaten into » mass, she did not die till some time enbsoquentlj. At length the son of a neighnoring farmer, named Oollir.s, accompanied by two women, named O’Brien, who were coming to the cabin to borrow a pair of cards for woollen spinning, arrived at the door, and Collins entered. He saw tho dead b.dy of his neighbor lyir.£ ttark and naked cn the clay floor, with two bullet holes in his side. Alarmed at. what ho had seen he did not advance farther, but raised tha alarm in the village, which lies in a .mattered, straggling form along tha valley and mountain sides, Tho villcpera soon collected, and a body of them entered the cabin. There they beheld a specie do when beggars description. They spoke to tte beys, who told their mournful tale as well as they could, and they counted ths oorpr.c* that lay around them. At 9.30 twelve men went to tho police hut at Finney, two miles scroti the mountains, and told what they had seen and heard. Two of the constabulary returned with them and visited the cabin whsre they beheld a sight of the most terrible character.