but Patrick Cremmin claims L88 from the county. He had offended
somebody, but he declares he knows not the motive. In other words, he
wants to let the thing drop--bar the L88. Another stack of hay, partly
saved by the police, was burnt because evictions had taken place:
damage L20, which the county must pay. R. Plummer, a labourer with
Brosna, whose case was given in my last, has received a letter
threatening him with death unless he left Brosna's employ. Some say
the name is Brosnan or Bresnahan. Beware of the quibbling of Irish
malcontents, who on the strength of a misprint or a wrongly-spelt
name, boldly state that no such person ever existed, and that
therefore the case is a pure invention. Here is a specimen of the
toleration Loyalists and Protestants may expect:--A special train
having been run from Newcastle to Limerick to enable people to attend
a Unionist meeting in the latter city, the Nationalists took steps to
mark their sense of the railway company's indiscretion, and a train
soon afterwards leaving Newcastle for Tralee, they hurled a great
stone from the Garryduff Bridge, smashing the window of the guard's
van and doing other injury. At Gurtnaclochy, to deter a witness in a
legal case, a threatening letter was sent, sixty yards of a sod fence
thrown down, and a coffin and gun neatly cut on the field. On the
Roman Catholic Chapel wall at Ashford a notice was posted threatening
with death anyone who bought hay or turnips from a boycotted man, and
the same day a man named Herlihy received a threatening letter. On
April 15 a party of armed, disguised men with blackened faces, called
on a poor man at Inniskeen, and having smashed the windows, tried to
force the door, but stopped to parley. They called on "Young Patrick"
to hand out the father's gun, and the young man complied. Being
twitted with this he said, "I want to live. If I had refused the gun
my life would not be worth twopence. I would be 'covered' from a bush
or a fence when I walked out, or shot dead in the door as I looked
down the lane, as was done in another case. I know the parties well,
but I would not give evidence. Neither will I give the police any more
information. It would not hurt the criminals, but it would hurt me.
For while the jury would not convict, the secret tribunal that sat on
me would not be so merciful, and many a man would like the distinction
of being singled out to execute the secret decrees of the Moonlight
fraternity." Anot