The Times
London, Middlesex, England

November 06, 1848

A Cavan paper has the subjoined account of an attempt to assassinate a gentleman who had the temerity to collect rents on a property over which he acted as agent:-

"An attempt was made this morning on the life of Mr. William Armitage MOORE, of Drumealis, the particulars of which have just reached us. As Mr. MOORE was on his way to Milltown, near Belturbet, to receive rents due by Lady ANNESLEY'S tenants, his car was stopped by two fellows near Baker's-bridge, one of whom presented a pistol at Mr. MOORE'S breast, and snapped it; fortunately the pistol missed fire, whereupon the two ruffians fled. Mr. MOORE who was closely muffled up at the time, could not extricate a pistol which he carried in an inside pocket until the fellows got to some distance. He then gave chase, joined by a clerk who accompanied him and the car-driver. The country people, it seems, gave them every obstruction in the pursuit and assisted the would-be murderers in their flight. Before the fellows got out of sight, however, Mr. MOORE discharged three pistol shots at them, which, owing to the distance between them, do not seem to have taken effect. Mr. MOORE went immediately and alarmed the police in the neighbourhood, as also the Cavan police, who at once set out to scour the country. At 4 o'clock this evening a young fellow named KIERNAN was brought a prisoner into Cavan. He was at once identified as the second person enaged in the outrage."

Further symptons of the progress of the national distaste to pay rents are noticed by the same authority : as thus :-

"A most disgraceful outrage was petpetrated in the townland of Lisboduff, parish of Drung, on the evening of Wednesday, the 25th ult. It appears that John LYONS, bailiff on the property of Mr. Richard B. BLACKWOOD, was sent to apprise some tenants on the estate that the agent, Mr. Joseph LYNCH, of Roebuck, would be receiving rents in Cavan on the following Monday, and that he expected that they would be prepared on that day to pay their rents. LYONS, after performing his duty, was quietly returning home, about 6 o'clock in the evening, when he was attacked by a party of men armed with sticks, who beat him in a most cruel manner: he received two dreadful cuts on the head, and there is no knowing where their brutality would have ended, had it not been that the noise of persons approaching caused them to fly . No cause can be assigned for such a wanton attack upon an innocent man: there cannot be a more indulgent landlord than Mr. BLACKWOOD, and as for LYONS, though he has been for more than 20 years bailiff, so far from incurring the hostility, he had succeeded in gaining the friendship of the tenentry on the estate.

Submitted by: County Cavan Newspaper Transcription Project

November 10, 1848

IRELAND
(From Our Own Correspondent)
DUBLIN, Tuesday Morning.

RESISTANCE TO THE POOR-RATE.

     The following statement from the Galway Vindicator is a foretaste of the movement which promises to afford ample employment during the winter to the military, police and all others engaged in the preservation of the peace:-
     "We are informed that on Wednesday last a force of military and police, greatly superior to those that had been previously called out upon that service, and attended by artillery to be used against barricades, &c., proceeded for the fourth time to distrain for poor-rate in the neighbourhood of Gort and Kinvarra. The people were as usual collected in large numbers to resist them, but this time, aware of the presence of artillery, they had recourse to a new rase de guerre. Accordingly, when the military came, directed, we are told, by a special stipendiary magistrate, to the place where they expected, as usual to find barricades, they found them not, nor aught else that their great guns could batter, but only a trench something like an Alpine ravine, about 20 feet broad and scarcely less deep. Here, then was of necessity a halt and a council of war, in consequence of which messengers were despatched in search of planks and other material to overlay the chasm. They might as well have sent for Xerxes' bridge of boats, at least for any use that could be made of either for that day, as night began to close upon the impeded army before their scouts had returned. 'Right about face' was therefore the word and tramp they went back, but not with the trophies of war and victory."
     That such a force should have been foiled by such an obstacle says little for the military skill of those in command.

Submitted by #I000525