MURDER IN IRELAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 281, 13 November 1862, Page 6

MURDER IN IRELAND.

(from: the times' correspondent.) ~ Dublin, August 2nd. The accounts of murders are coming so rapidly upon us, that they will soon cease to produce any sensation from dint of repetition. The last always appears the worst, the most dariug, and"'atrocious; but another comes, and casts it iuto the shatfe. The news of assassination comes likes successive flashes of lightning in atliundersto'rm.each more vivid and lurid than its predecessor, and followed by a louder clap ; but the eye and ear became accustomed to" the phenomena. The murder of Mr .Braddell, however, seems to have reached the climax. We can hardly conceive anything more horrible, unless the assassin walks into the church during Divine service, and murders a landlord in his pew, and then walks off without being interrupted or questioned. There are peculiar circumstances connected with this astounding crime which invest it with something of the interest of romance. In Carleton's numerous sketches of bailifls, the boldest fiction does not. come up to the-reality brought to light on this termination of a lengthened connexion between Michael Hayes, the murderer, and his victim. In order to understand the denouement it is necessary to refer to the previous history of the parties Mr Braddell, a highly respectable solicitor, living at Mallow, in the neighboring county of Cork, has been for many years acting as agent for several landlords The iamine of 1847 was the means of utterly "breaking" many of the small farmers in all parts of the country. They had lost the whole ;bf their capital and stock, they were deeply in arrears, and it was that .they, could crop the land or pay rent forttl: Their'alraost sote'mehns of-existence was the potavo, and that was gone apparently fo*«ver. Unless, therefore, the landlords relinquished their property and allowed it to become a common* they

must evict the tenants who could not pay the rent. Many of thorn were obliged to sell, and the new owners were resolved to have a fair return for their money. It fell to the lot of Mr BradleL< to be enframed extensively in' the odious work of eviction, which is always nccomptuied with* painful, sometimes with tragic, incidents, occasioned by the removal of aa;ed and sick persons. It is stated by the Morning Nnws, a tenant-right and ultramontane journal, that between. 1817 and 1850, Mr Braddell imd ejected in one parish no less than 250 families, representing about 1,250 \ individuals. In effecting all that dreadful work, Michael Hayes, the murderer, was his-bailiff j and it is said tnat he was one of the worst specimens of the dete? ted class to which he belonged. He is a tall powerful man of dark complexion, repulsive physiognomy wxth a sinister expression about his eyes As might be expected, his character was not the best, and no doubt Mr Braddeli had sufficient reason for dismissing him from his employment. His successor wa« Damei Moore, the young man who was in the room at the the tune of the murder. It appears that in addition to the dismissal, there was a more serious cause of animosity and a stronger motive for committing the crime in the threatened eviction of Haves himself from a small farm which he held under Colonel Hare.

Mr Braddeli had selected for bis office the smoking room of the hotel, n smallapart.nent at the rear 0 ' the building, approached by a long, narrow ill li<rhted passage, the room hwiiig a window opening into the yard Mr Rraddell sut at the table, ou which was the box containing the money he had received from the tenants. He was dressed In si suit of grey, with a soft felt hat. It should be mentioned -that a son of Haves had been prosecuted at the last assizes tor the murder of a man named Quin/au, who had obtained a farm from' which he had been ejected. At the trial Mr Braddeli was a material witness The evidence, however, was not deemed sufficient by the jury, and the prisoner escaped. Since that time the deceased seoined to be under some apprehension that the elder Hayes would make an attempt on his own life, and he therefore carried pUtols. Moore, the baililt, an arhietic young man about twenty years of age, was in attendance on his master. The only other person present in the room before the occurrence was a tenant, named Reardou, who came to speak about drainage. While lie was speaking Hayes entered, lhe scene that followed i=s described "by Keardon a-.d Moore. The former, in his evidence at the inquest, said that Hives wanted Mr Braddeli to allow lam to remain on the land at the same rent he lad always paid. He said that Colonel Hare had no objection ;ohis remaining, aud that Braddeli was the person that wished to put him out. Mr Braddeli mad* Lo'-e; V'm llayes thon £<>fc anary. and was very much exened. Tne deceased at last, said •< I want to have nothing to do with you." Witness noticing the nas«o-i m whicn Hayes was, tried to persuade him to leave the room, but he would not go. Witness then went out himself, and just as lie opened the door and got into the pa=sa«e he heard a shot, and then he heard a second shot, and immediately Mr Jiniddell rushed part him. and ran to the hall into the street, faying nothing:, but pressing his hand against his side. \Vitness saw Hayes in the street afterwards :—

ltio Coroner: Is it possible that you made no aitempt to patch him ] You saw him in the street; ynu heai d the shot fired. Good God !—why dH you give no alarm—why did you not try to have the niui-dei-fr taken up] "Witness: Shiire- I did.

1 The Coroner : When1? Is it possible tl-at Tipperary lias {alien so low that wo are to be cowed by one or two assassins ? Is the whole of Tipperary at the beck of a murderer ? *

Dan^l Moore was called and sworn/ He deposed that he was sitting in the room when Hay. s came in, and heard him ask Mr BradJeU to allow him to remain upon the lan 1; that Mr Braldell refused, and that Hayes thon fired. He sw Mr Braddeli leap up and rush out of the room. Witness swore that he attempted to catch and hold H vyei, bur. could not succc el in holding him. and that Hayes then went out of the room, and he weut out at alino t ?he same time. The nnn passed through the hall into the street, and he saw no more of him.

" The -Coroner : You are a strong, ath'etic, young man, and yet you tell us you could not succeed in preventing the escape of the murderer 1" The following is Mr Braddell's dvins declaration, read at the inq-if st:— " "I, John Waller Braddell, of Mallow, in the county of Cork, Ksq., but at present in the town of lipperary, being fliliy aware that I am in a dyin* state from the effects of a pisto'-shot. and being desirous to mske this my dying declaration, do declare as follows :—

" I was receiving rents at Dobbyn's Hot<>i, in the town of Tippermy, on ihis day. "There \ver« in tlie room Daniol Moore. Thomas Reardon, and Michael Hayes, of Carrigraore, county of Limeridc, and no other person. I was sitting- in said room when thesaid Michael Hayes took from his breast pocket a pistol, and aimed same at me, firmg1 at same time the contents ot the said pistol, which lodged in ray ahdomen, and from the effects of which I am now in a dying state. I have been for year? acquainted with the said Michael Hayes, and entertain no doubt whatever but he is the person who fired at me as aforesaid. "John Waller Braddell. Acknowledged by the said John Waller Braddell, before me, this 30th of July, 1862. "J. Massy, J.P., County of Tipperary." i)r Nadm and Dr Kennedy were examined, and made the following joint information :— /'We this day have made a post-mortem examination of tli°. body of the deceased, Mr John Waller Braddell. We find that his death was caused by a wound inflicted by a pistol bullet which passed through the abdomen, woundins the vessels of the jyreat omentum, and lodging in the right side. The wound caused internal hemorrhage, inflammation, and death. fhe bullet passed through the left arm before it entered the abdomen/

# The jury then retired, and after an absence of some time, returned to the room, and handed in a verdict of " Wilful Murder" asainst Michael Hayes. "The Coroner, addressing: Daniel Moore, said that the jury had directed him to express their very strong condemnation of his conduct, in making no effort to seize and hold the murderer of Mr Braddell, and not giving a prompt alarm. " Moore said he did attempt to hold Hayes, and that he gave, an alarm. When the police oaroe, the man w«s gone, and yet they were afraid to go into the smoking-room.

" Head-constable Bible: That is a falsehood, and you know it is. So f;ir from that being true, we found him sitting in the hall, aud he would tell us nothing.

" Moore.—l told a tenant named M'Cormac to "o for the police. " The head-constable, addressing the coroner, said the police got no information of the inuider until fifteen or twenty minutes after it occurred.

"Mr Howley, E.M., said that before the coroner went he. wished to say a few words. He could scarcely express the feelings he entertained about the fearful occurrence. He was sure that had an immediate alarm been given the assassin could not have escaped. 1 hero were plenty, of people in the street who would have joined in pursuing him. He had spoken to many persons that day, and all had expressed the deepest uhhorence of the crime, and the st<-ou?;e?t desire for the apprehension of the murderer, He ha-1 long-lived in that town, and np to the present it. had been his boast that whatever crime had disgraced the county, the town of Tippersry "was altogether free from outrnges of the kind, but, unhappily, he could say so no longer.

A rumour was prevalent in Nenncfh that Haves bad been arrested, but it is not confirmed, ami the police are still unsuccessful in their pursuit. They could get no information about him from the people. The Lord Lieutenant has offered a reward of LI 00 for such information as may lead to his apprehension and a like sum t • any person who will give inforraawho will givff information against those who harbour him, or aid him in any way.

In addressing the grand jury of the North Riding of Jipperary at JVena^h yesterday," Baron Deasy made the following reference to the murder of Mr Braddell:—

"The report of the county inspector agrees with the state of the calender,*and describes tho state of the county as most unsatisfactory. I cannot terminate my address here, as f would wish, for I regret that within the last frw days a most appalling outrage has occurred in- the South Riding of this county, wh;ch does not, of course, come within your jurisdiction, but which, in the daring publicity which attended its commission, exceeds all that we have heard or read of. In a room in a hotel, itnane of the most populous towns in this county, in the presence of several, and m the immediate proximity ,of [others, a gentleman engaged in "the discharge cf his duties as land agent was openly and barbarously mur r dered. I knew him for a long time, and, as far as 1 could j-'dge, he seemed a man of humane disposition arid justin his dealing with those he came in contact with, mild- and inoffensive in his manner, and, I should- say, as far as I could judge, incapable of doing any harsh or oppressive act. A short time ago I saw him in that home which is now made desolate, in the presence of that wife whom the assassin's hand has made a bereaved and disconsolate widow. It is not raerelyfor the purpose of expressing1 what wje all feel in reference to this outragcthat I refer to it on this occasion. *We cannot escape the conviction that*a wide-spread with.crime pervades this and a'neighbouring county, which leads them to shield and. protect the perpetrators of agrariancrime,,so as to-render the detection of. crime difficult. There is, I fear, a wide-spread disposition to shelter and |screea the assassin from justice. But I

it should be remembered that to stand by and see a felony committed, without interfering to prevent the commission of the felony, or making any effjrt to seize Ihe offender, is at common law "a raisleineanour; while all who supply food, shelter, help, or refuge to any one who has committed a felony, or harbour.? such a person, or aid in screening him from those seeking to discover him make themselves accessaries after the fact., and are liable, if convicted, to be sentenced to undergo penal servitude for the full term of their natural lives. Ifc is the duty, and I trust the firm re?olve, of Ihose intrusted with the admiuistration of justice in this country to endeavor to bring to justice those who screen an assassin, and harbor him, or aid his escape. The manifestations, both before and after the late Special Commission show how wide spread is the sympathy with crime in this county." His lordship then made an appeal, evidently intended tor the Roman Catholic, clergy. It is to be observed that similar remarks have been made by several other Roman Catholic judges in connexion with the agrarian crimes, particularly Mr Justice Fitzgerald and Mr Justice Keogh. "Baron Deasy said:—

"I have but to do my duty as a Judge. You, gentlemen, 1-trust, will use every eftor't in your power to check this spirit j and I hope that those who have a nearer and more intimate access to the people fnau you or I have, gentlemen, will impress upon them the enormity of this crime, aim that the peopLe may cea.se, by this sympathy wth crime, to h .Id out an indue, mr-nt to others to commit it. If feelings of justice and humanity will not deter men from the commission of crime, I hope the terror of the weiaht of the law will, and thai this country will soon be freed from the stigma which now attaches to it, arising from this sympathy with crime. Too of sen a man is led to perpetrate a rrime by the knowledge of tho aid which he may obtain in defeating justice. I trust that when crimes of such inaptitude as that which has recently occurred are committed, sreiety will at least have the satisfaction ot the conviction and execution of the criminal, and that the couut-y may be relieved from the ivproach that murder may be committed with impunifcv in consequence of a large portion of the population-sym-pathising with the criminals. I have made these observations to you, gentlemen, because [ know many of you are connected through your estates with the bouth Riding, and I hope that the knowledge of the consequences of abetting crime will become kuown as widely as possible."