A Horrible Scene.
St. James' Budget says:—" The story of the murder of the Joyce family at Maamtrasna, as disclosed al the trials which hsve just taken place, bears a striking resemblance to a tragedy of a similar character which. took plaoe .'at a farm house among the wild mountains of Tipperary in 1821. when .a whole family, the Sheas, and their servant, Kate Muhaly —seventeen persons in all—were murdered under circumstances of the mnst horrible barbarity. The Sheas had incurred the animosity of a man named Gorman, whom they had ejected from a farm which he rented from them and they from somebody^ else. Gorman, bent on revenge, joined* a gang of ruffian* headed by one Mayer, who wa» the terror of the district, On
the night of the 20ih of November, 1821, Mayer, Gorman, and the gang, started from Mayer's cottage for the farmstead of the Sheas. On the road they were watched and followed by a Mrs Kelly, the wife of the keeper of a public house frequented by the gang ; she was related the Sheas' servant, Kate Muhaly, and suspected that some evil was brewing. She observed that the men were all armed, and that one of them carried two lighted pieces of turf which he kept alive by blowing on them from .time ,to .time. Over-, field* and fences Mrs Kelly followed the gang at a distance until she reached a hill near the Sheas' house. She witnessed a horrible, scene. The murderers, having secured all the doors of the building, lighted the thatched roof and posted themselves round the house to drive back any who tried to escape. The uhh'ippy|B]keas and their-servant were thus literally roasted to death, the ruffians outside mocking the shrieks of their victims, and firing their guns into the flames. For a year and a half, notwithstanding&G:pvernment reward, the murderers were undiscovered. Mrs Kelly, however, haunted- bjrs her secret, confessed it to her' priest, and at bis instigation revealed the tale of horror to a magistrate, the result being, that Gorman, Mayer, and all .the gang, were sent to the gallows."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THS18830119.2.21
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Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4382, 19 January 1883, Page 2
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351A Horrible Scene. Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4382, 19 January 1883, Page 2
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