The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153406   Message #3593370
Posted By: mark gregory
18-Jan-14 - 03:44 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Johnny Boland
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Johnny Boland
Six mile Bridge has an interesting history to do with Irish resistance to colonisation

wikipedia:

1852 election affray

On 22 July 1852, a magistrate and eight soldiers of the 31st Regiment escorted 18 tenants of the Marquess of Conyngham to Sixmilebridge to vote for Colonel Vandeleur in the Clare county constituency at the general election. Vandeleur was a Conservative opposed to tenants' rights. A crowd of protesters, including two Catholic priests, was gathered near the ballot office, and an affray began between them and the voters' party. Soldiers opened fire, without the Riot Act having been read. Six people were killed at the scene and eight wounded, one of whom later died. At the coroner's inquest, the jury returned a verdict of murder; this was overturned by the Attorney-General for Ireland. An article in the Anglo-Celt accused the regiment of "willful and deliberate murder", and the editor was jailed for libel. The affair was discussed at Westminster, where Conservative members demanded the priests be prosecuted for incitement.