THE REAL STORY OF "THE COLLEEN BAWN."

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 88, 30 January 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE REAL STORY OF "THE COLLEEN BAWN."

o To many who have heard versions ot the story or seen the fasciaat ng drama founded thereon the following from the Kerry Evening Post will be of exceptional interest:—Ellen Handy, aged 15, lived with her uncle, a most rcspectab'e aged man. She told me, writes a friend, on that fine day in .Line—' Sure it is only a few days have passed since I left my darling uncle's houVo with him,' (her lover who was then lying drunk upon the deck of the boat in which they were sailing). 'He pledged his word and honour that he would always love me, and it was but yesterday the holy father joined our bands in marriage.' So brutal was Mr Semlou's behaviour that day that Ellie Hanly was even then anxious to leave him. She made 110 seerct of her regret at having left her uncle's protection for this drunken brute of a husband, and would gladly have returned to her uncle if any one had helped her to do so. But believing betto be married, no one dared to suggest her leaving her husband. The writer says:—'Later on I saw Ellie tit Kilrush.' The first discovry of her murder occurred in the following manner :—' The Knight of Glin one court day had to decide whether a ' cloak ' was to be the property of the woman with whom it was pawned for whiskey, or to be given up to Mauria Sullivan who said she had pawned it. The cloak, a beautiful grey cloth with green silk lined hood, was produced in court, and was too good an article to honestly belong to either clamiants.' A woman in court edged up to the Knight and whispered—' I know that cloik, but say nothing at present.' The Knight took the bint and took homo the cloak, psuding a decision as to the rightful owner. Hescnt for the woman who had whispered to him to come to Glin Castle —where I was staying —there she told him. ' The cloak belonged to Mrs Scanlon, whose servant I was.' ' Whore is she now ?' asked the Knight. ' I last saw her at Carrig Island, near Ballylongford, where her husband dismissed mc°ii few weeks ago ; saying he was caking her home to her uncle tor a bit.' ' Do you think she is there now?' asked tho Knight. Ellen XV replied, 'I fc\r not—bad stories are going, and when I saw that cloak this morning chimed by Mauria Sullivan, who is sister to Stephen Sullivan, Lieut. Scanlon's boatman (as bad a boy as from here to Cork), I trembled in my skin. Oh ! Knight, asthore, from the way _ they treated that poDr darling craythur in my presence nothitig is too bad for them to do.' While tho woman was so talking a policeman arrived saying an informer from County Clare hid just come stating the dead body of a female was washed ashore near Money Point, and 'bat there wart; suspicions of fo tl play. Frjm what occurred in court this morning, sir, there may be connection between this death and that cloak, suggested the policeman. The Knight was much struck with tho coincidence. He, myself and the police immediately erosse.il the river in the yacht, taking Ellen W with us. On reaching Money Point a man on shore told us no b'jdy hut come nigi him So he had buried the body out of sight iu the sand. Tho Knight of Glin sent for the nearest magistrate, also the coroner, and had the body, sfver.il weeks since life- was extinguished, laised from its shallow grave. One of the legs was missing from the body. The other was tied to the neck with a rope. J>\uk K , one of the men who had helped to sail the Knight's yacht across the river, exclaim* d—' I know that rope!' It was a bit of splicd rope which had been borrowed from bio six weeks before by Lieutenant Mention. The body was so decomposed it was impossible to recognise Ellen Hanly, but Ellen W recognised the stays as Mrs Scanlon's—the stays she ' had often laced ' —and ' the aoekeca where double front teeth kad boon.' Immediately on the finding of the body search was made for Lieutenant Scanlon and his servant, Stephen, but. it was not until the 14th November that Scanlon was discovered hidden in a heap of bay in his father's stable. I-le was tried at the following Spring Assizes in Limerick and convicted of murdering Ellen Hanly on July 4th, 1819. The prisoner remained unmoved when sentence was pronounced, and five days later on the scaffold on Gallows Green declared ho was ' not guilty ' ; therefore, though circumstantial evidence had been strong, some people believed him innocent. Six months elapsed, then when I was on a visit to Tralee a man was arrested at Castle Island for robbing his father-in-law. A gentleman seeing this man in jail was struck with his resemblance to the description of Stephen Sullivan. 1 was, therefore, asked to visit the jail. They were curious to see if I would recognise and identify the criminal as Sullivan. Walking through the group of prisoners, this man's uneasy effort to avoid my eye attracted my notice. His face was familiar but I could not recall his name. They told me they suspected he was Stephen Sullivan, and next day he was positively identified by a Glin policeman. Stephen was tried and convicted of aiding in the murder of Ellen Hanly. After conviction Stephen Sullivan admitted his guilt, and gave the following account of the tragedy : He said his master, John Scanlon, had plotted the whole wickedness ; that he, Stephen, was afraid of his life of bis master, and had no will but to obey him. Dressed as a pri«st, ho, Sullivan, had pretended to mairy Ellen Hanlon to S:anlon ; that, immediately after, his master desired to get rid of her; that while on tho honevinooii to Oarris; Island Scanlon decided to have her life taken, hllen was anxious to sec the Shrine of St. Sciviu's at Scattery, so Scanlon agreed to take her there, arranging with Sullivan that when half-way across Sullivan was to kill her and throw tho body overboard in deep water. Sullivan's heart failed, he did not obey the master's signal, so in a rage Scanlon turned the boat home for Carrie, A day or two after this the trip to St. Senan's was again proposed. At the last moment Scanlon excused himself from goina, sending oil' Klleu alone in tha boat witli Stephen Sullivan. His orders were ' not to dare to return without doing the deed.' Sullivan was well primed with whiskey and mad with fear of the consequences if he ' disobeyed orders.' Ellen Manly, worn out with fatigue and ill-usage, fell asleep in the boat ; so when a good way out Sullivan clubbed her with the stock of his gun. Being di unk, he failed to kill her at the first blow, which only broke her arm. She awoke and scuaiiied aloud, so then he hit out wild. It was all over soon. Ihen he stripped the body all but the at'iyu, tied neck and Ikcls together to a big stone, used for ballasting the boat, and threw tho body overboard. Then Stephen Sullivan returned to his master, who hid watched his proceedings and waited on shore until bis return. The sketch of the tragedy of the. Colleen Bawu Its taken from a pamphlet written in ISh'H by the late Richard Fitzgerald, of Tarberfc, who was present vviih the Knight of the Glin at the identification of the body of Ellen Hanly,