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Irish History: Strange but True, Clifden (2026)

28/03/2026

A religious apparition was said to have occurred at the small village of Knock, Co. Mayo on 21 August, 1879.

Fifteen individuals saw a vision of Mary, St. Joseph, St. John, a Lamb, and a cross on an altar on the gable wall of the church in their local village.

The apparition continued for a full two hours. This miracle would eventually get the sanction of Rome and the basilica which was later built at Knock is visited by over a million pilgrims annually.

A remarkable episode of religious fervour occurred in 1899 when members of the British-Israel Association of London arrived to the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath.

Their plan was to excavate the sacred hill, a place where for some reason they believed they were likely to find the Ark of the Covenant, a chest said to hold the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.

They descended on the hill using pics, shovels (pictured) and even dynamite in an effort to discover the religious artefacts that they believed to be there.

Their actions caused uproar and luminaries of Irish cultural life such as Maud Gonne, William Butler Yeats and Douglas Hyde protested at the site, singing nationalist songs and lighting bonfires.

The Irish press backed the protestors and the would-be archaeologists were eventually forced to move on.

Ireland arguably reached the peak of its religiosity in June, 1932 when the Eucharistic Congress came to the country.

Ireland was chosen to commemorate the 1,500th anniversary of the coming of St. Patrick and masses attracting up; to a quarter of a million worshippers were held in the Phoenix Park.

A half century later, the moving statues phenomenon of the summer of 1985 also caused a brief stir across Ireland. Reports emerged in several areas nationally of Virgin Mary statues moving inexplicably.

Thousands of people gathered at the grottos, hoping to witness the statues physically move, and there were also claims of spoken messages and apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It tapered off relatively quickly, although pilgrims still come to see the statue at Ballinspittle, Co. Cork, where the phenomenon began.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

27/03/2026

Sean na Sagart, or John of the priests, is the most famous and most reviled 'priest-hunter' in Irish history.

In penal times, such priest hunters could be well remunerated for bringing a clergyman to the attention of the authorities where the punishment was likely to be severe

A native of Co. Mayo, Sean na Sagart's real name was said to be John Mullowney.

Oral tradition states that he was born in around 1690 and as a young man was caught stealing a horse near Ballitubber Abbey (pictured) early in the eighteenth century.

He was reprieved from the death sentence which this crime carried if he agreed to bring the head of one priest a year to authorities, however.

He was also offered five pounds per priest. Despite being raised a Catholic, Mullowney agreed and used many nefarious methods of discovering priests, who went to great lengths to hide themselves.

He even killed some of them himself.

At one point, he told his sister that he was dying and wished for a priest to whom he could confess his sins. She believed him and sent for the local curate, Fr. Kilger.

As he was hearing Mullowney’s confession, the latter removed a knife from his coat and stabbed the priest with it.

The circumstances of Sean na Sagart’s death in around 1726 were recorded in the Folklore Collection by children in the local area over two hundred years later:

'One day Seán followed a priest and the priest ran as fast as he could. Seán fired his knife and it stuck in the heel of the priest's shoe. The priest turned around and he took the knife and Seán na Sagart and the priest caught each other and the priest knocked him down [dead.]'

One account states that Seán na Sagart was then buried in Ballyheane on the side of the road inside a wall for everyone to see. Another states that his body was thrown into a nearby lake by locals.

Either way, his name lived on in infamy.

25/03/2026

Irish sisters Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins, the ‘Black Widows of Liverpool,’ were infamous in Victorian times.

Born in Ireland in the years leading up to the Famine, the pair emigrated to Liverpool where they first ran a pub which soon garnered a dangerous reputation.

The sisters then set up a boarding house together.

A string of sudden deaths befell their lodgers, however.

Catherine’s son, John, was first to die.

He was just 22 and previously in good health but was struck down with a painful illness in 1880.

Catherine had allegedly said to a nurse ‘he will not live to comb a grey head.’ She was proven correct and he died after three weeks.

John had been insured with a burial society and his apparently crestfallen mother collected what was due to her shortly after his untimely demise.

Despite collecting a considerable amount of money, Catherine gave him little more than a pauper's funeral.

In 1882, Margaret married one of the other lodgers, Thomas Higgins.

His 8-year-old daughter Mary died suddenly that November.

She had also been insured, although this time Margaret Higgins was the beneficiary.

In early 1883, a third lodger, a young woman named Margaret Jennings, fell ill and died in agony.

By now, the deaths were garnering attention locally and the women moved across the city to Ascot Street to escape wagging tongues.

It was here, in October 1883, that Thomas Higgins died suddenly. An enormous sum of over £100 was paid out, dysentery being recorded as the cause of death.

The dead man’s brother was suspicious, however, and went straight to the police after finding out Thomas had been insured by multiple companies.

On the day of the wake, officers raided the boarding house, finding multiple traces of arsenic. Thomas’s body was examined and found to also contain arsenic and exhumations of the other dead lodgers were ordered.

These found the same poison present.

Catherine, who had absconded after the raid and been missing for a week, was discovered and arrested alongside her sister.

The two women stood trial for Thomas Higgins’ murder, the court finding that they had acted in partnership and found them guilty, sentencing them to death.

Afterwards, Catherine, perhaps looking for a reprieve, told authorities that the pair had been part of a wider conspiracy and there had been additional deaths involving several other conspirators, including workers from the burial societies.

She named several women and although it seemed like there was some truth in her allegations, it was decided not to proceed with any further investigations.

The sisters were hanged on 3 March 1884 at Kirkdale Prison.

Wax effigies of Flannagan and Higgins were quickly placed in Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors.

The Irishwomen proved to be among the star attractions in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

24/03/2026

'Failing to wipe off all arrears, we were one morning thrown out on the roadside and our little house and home pulled down before our eyes by the reigning institution: the ‘Crowbar Brigade’.

I was then but four and a half years old yet I have a distinct remembrance of that morning’s scene.

The remnant of our household furniture flung about the road, the roof of our house falling in and the thatch taking fire, my mother and father looking on with four young children.'

- Michael Davitt, on the eviction of his family in 1850.

Later in his boyhood Davitt, now exiled in England, stated that he often went to bed and dreamed of avenging his parents' eviction.

'I wondered whether I should ever be big enough to give the Irish landlord a licking?'

Davitt duly returned to his native land and in 1879 founded the Land League, an organisation which united small Irish farmers nationally for the first time.

The League's tactics ultimately forced legislative change which led to the introduction of land acts that improved the status of Irish tenants.

These evenutally set in motion the decline of the same landlordism which had put Michael Davitt's family on the roadside all those years before.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

23/03/2026

The 'Beresford Apparition' is one of Ireland's most chilling ghost stories.

One morning in the autumn of 1693, Lady Nichola Beresford of Curraghmore House, Co. Derry, arose from her bed.

She sadly told her family that her close friend from childhood, Lord Tyrone, had died during the night, although he was many miles away and how she could have known this fact was a mystery.

Nevertheless, a messenger arrived later to the house to confirm the sad news.

From this point on, Nichola sported a black ribbon tied tightly around her wrist, although she warned her family against asking about it.

They respected her wishes and she wore it ever after, not for many years elaborating on its purpose.

In later years, after the death of her first husband, Lady Beresford finally revealed to her children that she had been visited by Lord Tyrone on the night of his death.

He had grabbed her wrist with a cold and heavy grip and informed her that he had died. He added that she was pregnant, unbeknownst to herself, and that her husband would die shortly and she would remarry.

All of this proved correct.

He continued ominously that she would die at the age of 47. Lady Beresford lived with this terrifying spectre of death until her birthday in 1713, when she believed herself to be turning 48.

She was secretly celebrating cheating the prophecy until a clergyman present, who remembered the day of her birth, informed her that she was in fact turning 47 years old that day.

This sent her into a frenzy.

When her anxious children asked her what was the reason for her distress, she told them of her chilling night-time visitor from all those years before.

Lady Beresford duly died that year at 47 years old, fulfilling the prophecy.

After her death the black ribbon, which she had never removed, was finally taken off her wrist. The skin underneath was black and withered.

22/03/2026

The Carrickshock Incident was the most explosive event of Ireland's 1830s Tithe War and saw multiple government fatalities.

The tithe was a levy paid by farmers to the official state religion, the Church of Ireland.

It mattered not if the farmers were Catholic or Presbyterian, as they generally were; the fee was mandatory and went to the local vicar or someone to whom he had sold the right to collect tithes.

Unsurprisingly, this caused outrage amongst these communities, particularly Catholics in the south-east, many of whom were poor and struggled to pay the cash levy which was expected of them.

Not paying led to harsh punishments but paying the tithe could also be life-threatening. One notice posted in Co. Armagh warned farmers:

'Whoever pays that impost called tythe shall be in a short time freed from all worldly cares by him who has slumbered these many days but has now recovered from his drowsiness. Therefore, we beseech you, have not a hand in your own deaths.'

There were several violent incidents related to the collection of tithes.

The first occurred at Newtownbarry (now Bunclody) in Co. Wexford on 18 June 1831 after livestock had been seized from local Catholic farmers who resisted paying the tax.

There was chaos in the town during the attempted seizure and several animals escaped from the yeomanry who had seized them.

When attempts were made to reclaim the animals by their owners, the yeomanry began to shoot. Eighteen people died.

This incident became a rallying cry for those who opposed the tithes.

Six months later, on a rural laneway in Carrickshock, near Hugginstown, Co. Kilkenny, an attempt to serve summonses for non-payment of tithes in December 1831 ended in disaster, although on this occasion it was the authorities who suffered.

After being surrounded by protestors, police shot a local man named Treacy.

The ensuing riot saw the process server, Edmund Butler, and thirteen policemen killed, many being stoned and beaten to death or killed with pitchforks by hundreds of furious local residents.

Many shouted ‘Remember Newtownbarry.’ Despite several arrests, no conviction was forthcoming for the deaths with locals remaining tight-lipped.

The name of ‘Carrickshock’ became a rallying cry at nationalist gatherings for decades to come.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

Pictured is 'The Affray at Carrickshock" by David Henry Friston.

21/03/2026

There was just one uprising during the terrible years of the Great Famine and it was short lived.

The population of the country was plummeting during the Famine years. 1 million deaths may have occurred while another 1.5 million deserted the country for foreign shores.

Unsurprisingly, there was huge anger against the authorities and food riots occured, as did an attempt at a rebellion in 1848.

The Young Ireland Movement’s attempts to overthrow the British government began when thousands of men gathered in the south east to raise a flag of rebellion.

The only real skirmish occured on 29 July 1848 and involved just a few hundred men leading a siege against policemen who had been forced into Mrs. Margaret McCormack's house in Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary.

This came to be known derisively as the 'Battle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch,’ and petered out after barely a day.

Despite this, the British were angered and the sentences handed out to the conspirators, even those already imprisoned before the event, were harsh in the extreme.

Leaders such as Thomas Francis Meagher and William Smith O'Brien were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

These sentences were eventually commuted to transportation when cooler heads prevailed.

The most astonishing aspect of the rebellion is the ultimate successful fate of the transported rebel leaders:

Thomas Francis Meagher became governor of the American territory (later state) of Montana;

John Mitchel, a planner of the revolution, was arrested before it and transported, although he would eventually rise to become editor of the New York Daily News;

Charles Gavan Duffy was voted as premier of the Australian state of Victoria;

Thomas D’Arcy McGee rose to become the minister of agriculture in the Canadian government.

John Blake Dillon served the New York Bar and eventually returned to Ireland where he was elected as an MP for Co.Tipperary.

James Stephens, meanwhile, stayed true to his principles and founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an organisation that would ultimately play a huge role in securing Irish independence, some seven decades later and long after his death.

20/03/2026

Patrick Joyce's death at the hands of the IRA in 1920 led to a cycle of reprisals

Joyce was born near Headford in Co. Galway, the son of a farmer.

He was academic and excelled at school, securing a place in teacher training college and qualifying as a national school teacher in the early 1890s.

He married a fellow teacher, Spiddal native Margaret Donohue, in around 1892. They went on to have four children.

Joyce first taught in the Lettermore and Carraroe areas, where his knowledge of Irish would have been vital, before he secured a job as principal of the school in Barna village.

He first lived in the teacher's residence in the village before setting up home in Cappagh, between Barna and the city.

Joyce was outspoken in his views and was a regular letter writer to newspapers in Galway on any number of issues.

He was particularly strong on teachers' rights and was a president of the Galway Teachers' Association.

He supported the war effort in WW1 and was vocal in his condemnation of the Easter Rising and republicanism.

He strongly disliked Mícheál Ó Droighneáin, the teacher in nearby Furbo.

O Droighneáin was commandant of the East Connemara IRA and had been imprisoned after the Easter Rising, losing his job in the process, although he had the support of the local priest Fr Lally.

As 1920 wore on, the IRA began to believe thay there was an informer operating in the Moycullen and Barna districts.

Well-timed and accurate raids were occurring regularly in the area, indicating that Crown forces had access to inside information.

In the summer of 1920, a nationalist named Joe Togher who worked in the Galway Postal Service captured letters passing through the post office which were addressed to different officials in the British Service.

The letters were sent on to Mícheál Ó Droighnean.

The letters mentioned the details of twenty active republicans, including Ó Droighneáin, and other sympathisers, such as Fr Michael Griffin.

The writer urged the authorities to apprehend them, giving them some tips on where they could be found.

Although anonymous, suspicion immediately fell on Joyce.

O Droighneáin arranged to enter Barna school by night and secure samples of the teacher's writing. This was completed successfully and the commandant felt sure the samples matched the handwriting in the letters.

A messenger was immediately sent to IRA Headquarters in Dublin with the samples taken from the school, and instructions were sought on what to do next.

Richard Mulcahy himself sent back word that he trusted the local brigade to judge the handwriting and to take necessary action.

O'Droighneáin remained perturbed, however, and waited until the middle of October, 1920 when three more letters were intercepted.

These were addressed variously to Renmore Barracks, the officer in charge of the Lancers at Earl's Island, Galway, and to Sir Hamar Greenwood, Chief Secretary, at Dublin Castle.

The anonymous letter to Greenwood complained that no action had yet been taken against the republicans previously reported by the writer.

O'Droighneáin decided to act.

On 15 October 1920, at 11pm, seven men from the East Connemara brigade, with canvas masks over their heads, approached Joyce's house.

In response to an urgent knock on the door, Joyce opened up and immediately a canvas bag was clapped over his head.

He was brought upstairs and ordered to dress.

His wife asked 'Where are you going?'

Patrick Joyce replied 'I don't know.'

As the men left, the family were warned not to leave the house until 7am the following morning.

They later said they could hear noises outside through the night and they believed guards were posted around the house until around 4am.

The prisoner was walked away from the house, and on to the Cappagh Road, a quarter of a mile away. There, a sidecar was ready, waiting to take him to the rural townland of Lissagurraun, Moycullen to be court martialled.

The court took place in a ruined house in front of three republicans acting as judges.

Joyce denied that he had been communicating with the British authorities.

He was confronted with the letters and still continued to deny the allegations. He was nevertheless convicted of spying and was sentenced to death.

52-year-old Joyce begged for a reprieve, stating 'I have only a few years left. Let me go home to my family and I promise I will do you no more harm.'

The appeal was considered.

One member pointed out that Joyce knew the face of everyone in the shed, however, and would be able to point them out in future and that they would be effectively signing their own death warrants if they let him live.

It was decided therefore to carry out the death sentence.

A priest who had been summoned for the court martial, Fr Tommy Burke, then heard the condemned man's last confession, Joyce kneeling and saying a prayer for his ex*****oners.

His last request was that his body be returned to his family for a consecrated burial.

He was then shot.

He was buried in a shallow grave nearby, the IRA deciding it was too risky to grant his last request.

The incriminating letters he was said to have written were put in a bottle and buried nearby.

The following morning, Patrick Joyce's eldest son Joseph cycled to Eglinton Street Police Station to report the abduction.

The British forces were incensed and initially assumed Joyce was alive and being held captive.

Posters were erected in Barna warning that if he was not released, there would be reprisals and the village would be blown up.

Over the next few days, locals in Cappagh and Barna were questioned and violently mistreated, one man being shot in the leg.

Several other men were threatened and beaten and cows, pigs and geese of local people were killed.

Other men were lined up against the wall in a mock ex*****on in an attempt to make them talk.

Despite extensive searches, including of all the islands in Lough Corrib, police did not find Joyce.

In fact, the body of Joyce lay near Lough Dale, north of Barna village, and was not found until 1998.

He was identified by the items he had been buried with: a fountain pen, a Claddagh ring, a pair of glasses, a stick of chalk and a pocket watch with his name engraved on it.

The killing had a profound effect on many people.

In the case of the Joyce family, after Patrick's death they left Galway for Dublin, never to return.

The Galway IRA was not in the habit of executing informers and Micheal O'Droighnean, who had carried out the killing with a heavy heart, was deeply affected and thirty years later stated he could not sleep a wink afterwards.

Fr Burke said it was the most harrowing experience of his life.

Sadly, it did not end there and a fatal reprisal, the ex*****on of Fr. Michael Griffin, would soon follow.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

19/03/2026

Who stole the Irish Crown Jewels?

Designed in 1831, the jewels were immensely valuable, studded with precious stones such as diamonds, emeralds, and rubies.

After their creation, outside of important ceremonies, they spent most of their existence in a bank vault before being moved to Dublin Castle in 1903.

They were intended to be stored there in a strongroom secured by several locks, but as the safe was too large to fit through the door, it was instead placed in the library.

Although this was less secure than planned, the safe itself had only two keys and was still considered relatively secure.

The jewels were discovered missing on 6 July 1907, although they had last been definitively seen nearly a month earlier.

Dublin Castle was constantly guarded, and there was no sign of forced entry, leaving investigators baffled as to how someone had managed to enter the castle and open the safe.

King Edward VII was due to visit Dublin later that year, making the theft a major embarrassment.

A man named Arthur Vicars (pictured), an antiquarian who had been in charge of the jewels, was said to have been careless in his duties and at one point, they had even been stolen as a prank and returned to him by post.

The lack of forced entry suggested that it may have been an inside job.

A substantial reward failed to produce any useful information.

How were the jewels disposed of? It would have been extremely difficult to sell them intact.

More importantly, who took them?

One theory suggested that Francis Shackleton, brother of the explorer Ernest Shackleton, had stolen them after allegedly getting Vicars drunk and taking his key, later selling the jewels on the Continent.

Shackleton denied this until his death. Vicars himself was later killed during the Irish War of Independence.

Despite many speculative theories, the Irish Crown Jewels have never been recovered, and their fate remains unknown.

18/03/2026

John Lavery rose from poverty in Ireland to become one of the most renowned portrait painters of his day.

He was born in Belfast and then, when aged just three years, he was orphaned.

First, his father was drowned at sea. His mother passed away within months.

He was initially raised by an uncle in Co. Down before he was sent to live with other relatives in Scotland while still a child.

Lavery studied art and was immensely talented as a portrait painter. He moved to London, spending several years as a struggling artist, raffling his first work for £8.

His undeniable talent was eventually noted and by the turn of the twentieth century Lavery had become internationally famous.

He was commissioned to paint portraits of major figures in political and religious life, both in Ireland and abroad.

He was even commissioned to paint the British Royal Family, receiving substantial payment for his work and growing his reputation around the world.

Lavery is as famous for whom he married as for his paintings; Hazel Martyn, later Lady Lavery, became his wife in 1909, his first wife Kathleen McDermott having died early in their marriage.

Hazel was an artist herself who came to be well known in British and Irish high society and she is widely rumoured to have had a close relationship with the austere Irish Minister for Justice, Kevin O’Higgins, throughout the 1920s.

Hazel was also a personal friend of Michael Collins, the Irish rebel, and both Laverys played an important role in the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations in 1921.

It was John Lavery who painted Michael Collins’ famous posthumous portrait as he lay dead in the mortuary chapel in Dublin.

Hazel Lavery, meanwhile, was honoured for her service to the Irish state by being asked to pose for the allegorical figure that could be seen on all Irish banknotes.

Her image appeared there for decades.

In 1941, John Lavery died in Kilkenny in the care of his step-daughter, six years after Hazel.

Shirley Temple of Hollywood fame had bee on of the last portraits he pained.

Several of his portraits, including those of Michael Collins, Éamon de Valera and Arthur Griffith, can be found in Dublin collections today, including in the Hugh Lane Gallery.

17/03/2026

There was a brief explosion of violence on the streets of Dublin on the announcement of the end of World War II in 1945.

Ireland's attitude to the war was complicated.

Most were pleased that the conflict was at an end, and that rationing might soon cease.

Many had also tacitly supported the Allies, including the government of the day.

A residual resentment towards Britain remained, however, Ireland having only gained independence from them after a bloody struggle just over two decades before.

Trinity College, Dublin was one institution where the victory was celebrated wholeheartedly. It had remained a bastion of unionism after independence, the college continuing to sing God Save the King at official functions and often flying a Union flag.

On Germany’s surrender, Victory in Europe Day was celebrated by the allies on 8 May 1945.

These celebrations were muted in Ireland, Trinity College being a prominent exception.

Flags of the United Kingdom and Soviet Russia were unfurled and placed in prominent positions around the campus, which was situated in full view of Dublin City centre.

Students stood on the roof of the college singing the British national anthem and, in some cases, shouting anti-Irish slogans.

This show of pride in Britain's victory did not go down well with some Dubliners, especially students of University College Dublin, an institution with a long history of supporting nationalism.

Led by Charlie Haughey, a future Irish taoiseach, the group entered Trinity's campus after hearing that an Irish tricolour was being burned.

This led to violent clashes between the two groups with the tricolour, the Union flag, the French flag and even the sw****ka being held aloft.

A Garda baton charge put an end to the clashes, although twelve people ended up in hospital.

Trinity College subsequently apologised, admitting regretfully that some of their students had indeed burned the Irish tricolour.

Peace had returned to Europe and, after a brief skirmish, returned to Dublin too.

Pictured are students of Trinity College Dublin on the roof of the college with the the flag of the United Kingdom flying behind them.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

16/03/2026

A fatal duel occurred at Sheemore Hill, Co. Leitrim in 1786.

Duelling was a facet of life in Ireland for many centuries.

By the eighteenth century, duelling was particularly popular among the upper classes in Ireland, with as many as one-third of duels ending with a fatality.

It was considered a fair way to solve a grievance if the strict duelling codes were followed.

One infamous duel in which the code was ignored occurred at Sheemore, Co. Leitrim, between George Reynolds and Robert Keon, a well-known attorney.

The duel came about after Keon had horsewhipped his neighbour at a fair in Carrick-on-Shannon in 1786.

The reasons why he did this are disputed. Some sources state that Reynolds told his mother not to employ Keon due to his bad character.

Another account states that the men were fighting over a lady named Mary Reilly.

Either way, it appears that Reynolds initiated the duel, which was set for 16 October. Powder only was to be used.

Keon arrived to the duel and Reynolds approached him, spectators expecting a reconciliation between the men.

Without waiting for the ground to be marked or the bell to be rung, Keon shouted 'why did you bring me here?' before shooting his opponent in the head, killing him.

He then galloped away.

Keon was eventually caught near Drumsna and when brought before the judge, he said his name was "Keane." When asked again, he answered that he was "King.” Asked a third time, he responded finally "Keon.”

When Reynolds's coachman was brought as witness before the judge he said ‘Let him be King, Keane or Keon, it was he who killed my master.’

Keon’s conduct was considered a grave offence against duelling and he was tried and found guilty.

No mercy was forthcoming and he was executed in Dublin in February 1788.

Irish History: Strange but True

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