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Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 45, 14 April 1863, Page 6 (Supplement)

IRELAND. (From the Home Neics.') A fearful explosion of gunpowder took place at Tobercurry, county Sligo, on the 26th of December, in the shop of a man named Henery, a general dealer. It is supposed to have happened through the negligence of a boy, who let a spark fall into two powder casks. The effect was most disastrous. The boy received fatal injuries. Mrs Henery was blown through a window, and is not likely to recover. Her daughter, a little girl nine years old, is shockingly mangled, and Mr Henery was found lying insensible on the floor. Several other persons were more or less injured, and the adjoining houses in the town were shattered. A great dog case came before the magistrates at the Lucan Petty Sessions on the sth January. On Sunday, the 21st of December, about five hundred persons, on sixty or seventy cars, drove out from some of the dirty purlieus of Dublin to a place called Milltown, near Lucan, in order to witness a dog fight, which excited immense interest. Thirty-eight summonses had been issued on behalf of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the parties appeared accompanied by great numbers of the dogfighting fraternity and their sympathisers, who employed counsel for the defence. SubInspector Gunn deposed that he saw the dogs fighting ; that the crowd, many of them half drunk, were very violent in preventing his interfering ; that they turned him out of the field, shouting and brandishing their sticks. Head-constable Nolan deposed that the dogs ; were kept fighting, round after round, till they were dreadfully cut and injured, and their heads covered with blood. There were regular "handlers,'' who examined the doga' mouths, and a timekeeper held a watch in his hand. At length one of the dogs, utterly beaten and exhausted, refused to fight any i more. The offence charged in the summonses was cruelty to animals, under the second section of the act. The third section related to parties keeping a place where animals were made to fight. There was considerable discussion between the counsel, Mr Curran and Mr Purcell, as to the jurisdiction of the court. The magistrates, Mr Vesey and Mr Clarke, decided that they had jurisdiction, and the court ordered two of the ringleaders, Goggin and Ruth, to be imprisoned for three months without the alternative of a fine. Mr Curran gave notice of an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, and pending the appeal the prisoners may go out on bail. A number of persons assisting -were fined half a crown, with costs. The Morning News publishes an extract from the Monarckia Naziotiale of Turin, which announces the presence of Mr Smith O'Brien in that city, and refers to liis intention to deliver a " Lecture on America" there. Mr O'Brien is also to go to Greece, for what purpose is not known. A Dublin journal jocularly asks — Is he about to offer himself for the gilded chair of Otho ? Mr. J. F. Maguire, M.P. for Dungarvan, has been for the third time elected Mayor of Cork.|