FACTION FIGHTS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3211, 4 June 1879, Page 3

FACTION FIGHTS.

A North of Ireland Exchange says :— The account of a faction fight given, at the Assizes for County Tipperary roads ' almost like a romance of somi-barbarous times. The man who, according to the old story, is said to have requested the niusiciau to " play up ' The Battle of the Boyn'e' just that he might see if he could stand if " has como to be regarded by most people as little better than a mythical personage. ,sut his descendants must surely.still ...litre in. Tipporary. ; The affray which gave rise to the case at the Assizes originated in a dance held i nt a place called Muhopper, pear Mulli- j nabone.: The meeting was ajovial one, a : pleasant merrymaking, at which the ! representatives of two ancient factions, tho Shanarfists and the Caravats, met on apparently friendly terms. All went well so long as they maintained common ground, and danced to common music; But.. the,; Shanavcsts, through , Andrew JPox, a member of their party, demanded a Shanavest jig, and it was played and danced. The Carravats did not at ori'ce accept =w:hat no doubt they regarded as a challenge, and. Fox and his friends left the place.; But they had no sooner done so than a Carravat jig was playei. The Fox party then returned, and a fight took , place. named John Dooley, belonßing tothe Cararat faction^ stabbed a person of the name of Bryan, who died immediately. For tho manslaughter of Bryan his assailant isnow undergoing fire years' penal servitude. Thomas Croke,| one o£-4he Cararats, attacked Fox. stabbing him with a small pocket knife, and ,Dool,ey then mortally wounded Fox with tho large knife with which he had already killed' Bryan. The charge brought against Oroke at the Assizes was that of aiding and abetting Dooley in killing Fox. There were three witnesses for the prosecution, and the evidence appeared to be quite clear against the prisoner. Yet the jury returned" a' verdict of not guilty, The Lord Chief Justice told the jury that he considered their verdict extraordinary. '• seeing it' was sworn that the prisoner 'struck. Fox with an open knife, and stood "by while the other man stabbed the deceased. The itory is a most melancholy one. and yet it has a ludicrous sido. It must be admitted that the most perfect parallel to a Tipperary enthusiast with an oppos-, ing faction jig is the proverbial bull with] a red rag. The effects of. tho music upon' the one and the eolbur'upon the other arc pretty much alike. But it is surely time that our, warmhearted and impulsive countrymen of the South'should bury the; old feuds which frequently lead to .such; dißgrace,ful..results. When, our Southern! friend^point to the, jsei?tarian^ riots tf /the; "Black JSorth^'^hichrW^ s,have,ever so; strongly condemned, they seem to forget; the petty disputes among themselves | which so often hare .fatal results. It is; strangej; jthat <mi the districts-where; f^Ationslf feeling and -are, to be deepest the people -should ;be;brokenJup into-■insignificant factions.; tUnion^tKe 1 rery-first requisite for success, \ is absent. It is high time that septs and 'fclah's^and" factions should cease to exist, i These^distinctions are relies of a: remote' past. They are only supported by a false sentiment and a natural combatiye■tieWs#di&pbsition which mighlb'e applied i to jnuch better objects. JWe/'hope', andl 'bfelier^^aY'ewiiestljr^as 'the^mpst 7 pro-, njquficeidV H^tibnHlist," but in "a wider great.future'.>.But) that future is,' [for a united'and orderly, people; not forpetty'"local factions]at once childish and bloody. Our national peace and prosperity "demand their extinction* >**>-