THE LATE HEAD CONSTABLE TALBOT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1100, 6 February 1872, Page 3

THE LATE HEAD CONSTABLE TALBOT.

Head Constable Talbot, for whose murder Kelly has lately been tried and acquitted, seems, by the following account given of him m the Dublin Daily Express, to have been no ordinary man. At the age of nineteen he entered tho constabulary, and his taste and talent soon introduced him into the detective department of that body. Finding his country education insufficient for his advancing position, he set to work to improve it. Observing the advantages the lawyers had over him when defending prisoners, he studied jurisprudence, so that he could read an Act or prepare a case as well as most of them. Latterly, he had commenced the study of medical jurisprudence. Nor were other studies beneath his attention. As a tinker he travelled with his budget, and made a good living at it too. He could make and mend Bhoes, undertake bricklaying, carpentry, slating, plastering. Ac. ; all cw-as by instinct to him, •naiinfarmuigw.was ever at home. Nor were his acoom^ishmen|j neglected. He played cards wijfc" tne sfiargera and knew their tricks,' some cf which he exhibited In open court when prosecuting a gang which had infested a railway line. He could dance a jig or reel, court the girls, and tell a capital story or joke; but all was acting, for beneath the sparkling surface there was the Btern determination to

accomplish a purpose unsuspected by any. He was "on duty," and for the detection of crime and protection of society he felt, nadpubt, that the end justified any means. '■ iS^f commencement of the Crimean war / of joined (he' Commissariat Department, and received a silver medal for his faithful services and ability in aposition of trust which he occupied. When the Fenian organization became so powerful and extended, that in order to suppress it a thorough knowledge of the leaders and their movements was necessary, Talbot volunteered for the dangerous duty, and so well did he perform it that he received the highest praise at the close of the State trials from tne judges and Crown counsel. To detail his exploits would fill a volume, and through his means nearly 200 of the leaders and active men of the Fenian body in the district of Limerick and adjoining counties were convicted. Adopting the name of Kelly, he appeared on the banks of the Shannon as a water bailiff, . became Acquainted with the neighbors, was sworn into the Fenian Brotherhood, and w^ ultimately made a head centre. tie wJHrgood a Catholic as any of them, regujKejat mass every Sunday, attentive to his oonfessional duties, ana even partook of the, sacred elements publicly, tittle did 'the Fenians who Came to the chapel to confess know, as they were renriMßffli&y the priest, tnat the big woman , deyottonaUy kneelingalongside with beads and books was noting every one of them to. report them to Dublin Castle that . night. Talbot stopped at nothing, and through his information the Fenian conspiracy was frustrated and the lives of thousands of people saved, as well as a vast amount of public mouey.