him. This rumour becoming more general, some gentlemen of the barony, whether in their love of justice or sport may be questioned, proposed a hunt with a good pack of fox hounds, as the most likely mode of discovering Leary's body if it lay concealed in any obscure or secret nook. The proposition was eagerly received, and, to use the words of the narrator of these circumstances, every man and boy in the six parishes, gentle and simple, assembled at the hunt which was given out for Arthur Leary." 66 66 By the dogs, the body of Leary was discovered in what is locally termed a double ditch," that is, a high broad bank of earth planted with a double row of trees. A fox earth in this double ditch had been widened, and the body of the murdered man thrust into it, and no further effort at concealment was made than that of placing a few loose stones and sods over the entrance. The body was removed, and a coroner's inquest held upon it. That robbery was not the murderer's object, was evident from the money which Leary was known to have had about him being found in one of the pockets; and from the testimony of the priest, together with the place where the body was found being close to Walsh's farm, and other circumstances which transpired, strong suspicion attached to Walsh as the murderer of his gossip. nose. On Walsh being brought into the presence of the murdered man, the corpse is said to have gushed out blood at the ears and Such is, at least, the popular version of the story. Walsh was immediately made a prisoner, and sent to Cork, where he was tried at the ensuing assizes. Upon the evidence of Mary Fahey, who became approver, he was found guilty, and, pursuant to his sentence, was hanged at Gallows Green, and his head spiked on the South Gaol of Cork. Some years after the murder of her husband the widow Leary met Walsh's daughter at the fair of Carrigaline, when the following Keen or dialogue took place : MRS. LEARY. Is not that Ned Walsh's daughter, WALSH'S DAUGHTER. Yes, I am she-Ned Walsh's name That Edmond Walsh to gaol was sent. MRS. LEARY. If not for these, it was for worse; He, at one blow, made orphans† ten, * Blood-money, literally "red silver," is the name given to a reward offered for the apprehension, and paid upon the conviction of a murderer or other criminal; and to have received it (in other words, to have turned informer), is considered among the Irish peasantry to be so great a stigma upon the character, that an informer is generally obliged to leave the country. It is difficult to understand Mrs. Leary's allusion, unless it means, that as Walsh's property became forfeited with his life, it might be considered in the light of a reward as the gift of the Crown to his innocent widow and children. †The Editor has endeavoured to preserve in the translation, the Anglo-Irish idiom. In Ireland, the word orphan is com And changed to grief their infant mirth One heavy blow with bar of gate But his bruised body heedless thrown For whom he would have staked his land. WALSH'S DAUGHTER. Small would have been the risk of ground, Ten thousand deaths he would have died Or ask a boon for friendship's sake.- MRS. LEARY. If I had silver and had gold As much as in this fair is told, monly applied to children who have lost either parent. "Fatherless orphans," or "motherless orphans " is the phrase made use of. The addition of "fatherless and motherless orphans," is requisite to convey the English meaning of the word. F I'd give it all, and think I'd be To see again my husband live. WALSH'S DAUGHTER. Alas, alas, my father dear, No sign he shewed of guilt or fear, When he was sleeping with the dead.— His corpse in Temple-breedy* lies, Keen'd by the white-wing'd sea gull's cries. KEEN ON MR. HUGH POWER. TRANSLATED FROM THE IRISH BY THE EDITOR, And obtained by him from the recitation of an old man, named Murray, an itinerant surveyor. The author was said to be Edmond Wall; and, to use Murray's words, "Mr. Hugh Power was one of the brightest men in Munster, and was the champion of all sorts of learning. He lived midway between our times and the sieges of Limerick, at a place called Knockastocaune (the Hill * Or Temple breada, i.e. Bridget's Church, which stands perched on a bleak height at the western entrance of Cork harbour, and is a valuable landmark to seamen. of the Stake), east of Castle Lyons, and north of the river Bride, in the county of Cork." This translation was printed in Fraser's Magazine, No. II, for March 1830. LAST night, to my sorrow, I heard through my dreaming Cf fate sadly screaming ;- With mourning and weeping; I found it this morning My best friend was taken ; From the stock of the Powers The best limb had been shaken Hugh, the manly in heart And the princely in spirit, Who, from lofty descent, Did these virtues inherit. O Death! you're my ruin, By this cruel action. As a hive full of honey, My heart you have rifled; *The Banshee, see p. 15. |