ELECTIONEERING RIOTS IN IRELAND.

Southland Times, Issue 654, 8 April 1867, Page 3

ELECTIONEERING RIOTS IN IRELAND.

The election for the county of "Waterford of a representative in the room of Mr George, who has been promoted to a, seat on the Irish judicial bench, took place on Saturday, December 29. There were two candidates. Mr De la Poer, of Gurteen, stood on the Liberal interest, and Captain Talbot, second son of the Earl of Shrewsbury, on the Conservative. The official declaration of the poll shows that Mr De la Poer received 1,481 votes, and Captain Talbot 984 ; majority, 497. Great rioting occurred at several of the polling districts, especially at Dungarvan. The Cork Examiner contains the subjoined concerning the rioting at the latter town :—" Nothing serious occurred between the authorities and the people up to about one o'clock, when a party of the 12th Lancers and the 67th Kegiment of Foot, were attacked with stones by the i mob as they were escorting Major Palliser's tenantry along the quay to the poll. A number of the Lancers immediately turned round, and made a sortie down the quay, driving the people before them at the point of the lance, wounding several. One man was thrown down and trampled on by the horses of the Lancers. Dr Anthony, who was called to see him, ordered him to be conveyed to the workhouse hospital. Captain Kiely, harbour master, who lived in that neighborhood, was standing at his gate when one of the Lancers wounded him in the breast, piercing the right lung to the depth of three inches. A man had a portion of the scalp completely taken off with a lance. About twelve or fourteen persons in all were wounded, the wounds being in the breast, face, and head. Kiely was an active supporter of Captain Talbot. The wound is two inches long, piercing the lung, but not reaching the heart. Some of the mob, pursued by the Lancers, ran inside his gate, and he was trying to keep them out when he was mistaken for one of the assailants of the Lancers. The man who was trampled on by the Lancers' horses is a laborer named O'Brien. He got bad contused wounds on the head, of which he has died. Several women were also injured. One was run over, and another was stabbed in the "breast ; and it is said, but it is to be hoped not truly, that a third, having fallen, a Lancer made two or three lunges at her. The military were exasperated by being pelted with stones, and women are sometimes not the least active in such outrages. It is not in human nature that the Lancers should have been quite passive under such provocation. On Sunday morning, December 30, Dr Hally, P.P., exhorted his congregation to forgive and forget any injuries they have received, and get rid of all animosities arising out of the election." An escort of the electors, on their way to Dungarvan, were routed ; they were regularly entrapped. A barricade, constructed of large boulders, was erected across a narrow part of the road, and as Boon as the troops reached the obstruction, they were attacked with stones. A Conservative voter thus described what followed : — " "We were attacked on the road by an infuriated mob, and stoned with great fury. The escort of dragoons and lancers suffered much, one soldier having bis skull fractured. Three of the car horses were left dead by the roadside. The consequence of this violence is that Mr Talbot loses all Lord Stradbroke's votes, my own among the number. Mrs Chearnley's tenants were also prevented from going to the poll. "We were pelted for half an hour, the cars and carriages were broken, and the horseß and men wounded. The soldiers refrained from firing under this great provocation, and did not, as I think they ought to have done, charge into the fields from which we were assailed on every side, My own life was only saved by the coming up of a party of police after I had been twice attacked by men armed with bludgeons." The " Cork Examiner " states that Captain Talbot's expenses will probably amount to £5,000, and understands that so much as £3 10s to £4 10s a day was paid for the use of cars to convey voters from places not more than four or five miles from the town. Some of the placards were very inflammatory, the following for example : — "People of Waterford, in the olden time the Beresford Bloodhounds hunted your forefathers into untimely and bloody graves ! Who raised the triangle in the County "Waterford ? Who used the pitch cap and the gibbet, the car and the cat-o'-nine-tails? The Beresfords. What did O'Connell say of them in 1826 ? The : Beresfords, who were never known to smile except when their victim was writhing on the gibbet!"