for some time after the death of anthony mayne, the murdered r.m., petty sessions courts ceased to be held in ballybor, and the sinn fein courts reigned supreme. at length mayne’s successor arrived, and endeavoured to start the courts in his district again, but found that not only were the country people too terrorised to bring any cases before a british court, but that most of the magistrates had resigned, and none of the few remaining ones would face the bench.
however, fitzmaurice, the new r.m., stuck to it, and in the end a retired officer, living just outside ballybor, became a magistrate for the county; and suddenly, to the intense excitement of the whole town, it was given out that some countryman had had the audacity to defy the edict of dail eireann, and to summon a neighbour to appear before the british magistrates.
the court-house at ballybor is a most curious-looking edifice of an unknown style of architecture, shabby and dismal outside 121and like a vault inside. on the day that the court reopened the place was packed to the doors, and when the clerk stood up to announce the court open, and ending with the words, “god save the king!” the silence could be felt.
it was what is known in the west of ireland as a “saft day”—a day of heavy drizzling rain and a mild west wind off the atlantic, and after a time the crowded court-house of countrymen in soaked home-spuns and women with reeking shawls over their heads literally began to steam, and the strong acrid smell of turf smoke from the drying clothes became overpowering. at first all eyes were fixed on the two magistrates sitting on the raised dais at one end of the court-house, and many, remembering poor mayne’s end, wondered how long the two had to live. the r.m., they knew, was well paid by the british government, but the second magistrate’s unpaid loyalty must surely be a form of madness, or most likely he received secret pay from the government.
after the disposal of cases brought by the police for various offences, the only civil case on the list—in reality the beginning of a trial of strength between sinn fein and the british government—came on for hearing, and in due course the magistrates gave a decision in favour of the complainant, a herd by name mickey coleman.
taking advantage of the suspension of the law, a neighbour, ned foley, had thought to 122get free grazing, and day after day had deliberately driven his cattle on to coleman’s land. coleman, having remonstrated repeatedly with foley in vain, consulted a ballybor solicitor, who advised him to bring foley into a sinn fein court, where, he assured him, he would get full justice. this coleman refused to do, and after consulting a second solicitor, brought the case before the ballybor petty sessions court.
coleman appears to have been a man of great determination and courage, as he had been repeatedly warned by the volunteers that if he persisted in taking foley into a british court they would make his life a hell on earth; and as he left the court after winning his case, a note was slipped into his hand to the effect that the i.r.a. neither forgets nor forgives.
coleman had started life as a farm labourer, eventually becoming herd to a loyalist called vyvian carew, whose ancestors came over to ireland in the time of queen elizabeth, and who lived alone in a large house about eight miles from ballybor, where he farmed his own demesne of four hundred irish acres.
carew belonged to a class of irishman fast dying out in the west, and considering that it has always been the policy of every liberal government to throw them to the wolves, it is almost beyond belief that any are left in the country. a type of man any country can ill afford to lose, and all countries ought to be proud and glad to gain. after serving throughout the late war in the british army, carew 123had returned home, hoping to live in peace and quiet for the rest of his days, but had soon been undeceived. though working himself as hard as any small farmer, and farming his land far better than any other man in the district, it was decided by men who coveted his acres that he possessed too many, and the usual steps in the west were taken to make him give up three of his four hundred acres, and if possible force him to sell out all.
coleman started with a heavy heart for his cottage in rossbane, carew’s demesne, and from the moment he left the court-house until he lifted the latch of his door found himself treated as a leper by townsfolk and country people alike. probably some of the people would have been willing to speak to him, and most likely many admired his pluck, but a man who comes under the curse of the i.r.a. is to be avoided at any costs. no man can tell when that sinister curse, which is often a matter of life and death to a peasant, may be extended to an unwary sympathiser.
in the evening, when going round the cattle, he met his master, who, on being shown the threatening note, at once wanted coleman to bring his family up to the big house; but he refused, knowing that if he did his cottage would probably be burnt and his own few cattle either stolen or maimed.
soon after eleven that night there came a loud knock at the door, and coleman, who had been sitting by the fire expecting a visit, rose up to meet his fate, but was caught by 124his terrified wife, who clung to him with the strength of despair. at last coleman succeeded in opening the door, and to their utter astonishment in walked a british officer, dressed in khaki topcoat, steel helmet, and with a belt and holster. the officer explained that he came from castleport, that he had a large party of soldiers on the road outside, and that he was going to scour the countryside for rebels that night. lastly, he said that he had been told coleman was well disposed, and would he help him by giving information?
coleman, who at the sight of a british officer in a steel helmet, when he expected a volunteer with a black mask, had been overcome with joy, at the mention of that sinister word “information” regained his senses, and answered that he had none to give; that he was only a poor herd striving to do his work and keep a wife and a long weak family, and that he had nothing to do with politics.
the officer said nothing, but sat down by the fire on a stool and started to play with the children; presently he returned to the charge again, and asked the herd where the foleys lived, and if they were volunteers. the mention of the name of foley confirmed coleman in his growing suspicion, and he replied that he knew the foleys for quiet decent boys, and he believed that they had nothing at all to do with politics.
shortly afterwards the officer wished them good-night, leaving coleman and his wife a prey to conflicting emotions. if he really was 125a british officer, then at any rate they were safe for that night, but if not, then probably some terrible outrage was brewing. only a week before the volunteers had set fire, while the inmates were in bed, to the house of a farmer, who had bought the farm a few days previously at a public auction, contrary to the orders of the i.r.a.; and though the inmates just managed to escape in their night attire, their two horses and a cow were burnt to death, and their charred bodies could still be seen lying amid the ruins from the main road—a warning to all who thought of disobeying the i.r.a.
after the time it would take to walk to the foleys’ house and back there came a second knock, and the officer entered again, pushing one of the young foleys in front of him with his hands up. “here’s the young blighter,” said the officer to coleman, “and if you will give the necessary information about him, i’ll have him shot by my men outside at once.”
but coleman, whose suspicion by now was a certainty, refused to be drawn, and replied that he knew nothing against the foleys, and that they were quiet respectable neighbours.
for some time the officer tried his best to get coleman to give evidence against foley, but at last, finding it was useless, left, taking his prisoner with him.
by now the colemans were too unhappy to go to bed, and sat round the fire in silence. after an hour there came a third knock, and again the officer appeared; but this time 126coleman could see quite a different expression on his face, and in a brutal voice, not taking the trouble to hide his brogue, he bade the unfortunate herd “get up out of that and come outside.”
coleman followed his tormentor outside, and there found a mob of young men and boys waiting for him, who proceeded to kick him along the road for a mile, when he could go no farther, and fell on the road. they then tied his hands and ankles, and left him in the middle of the road for a police car to run over him. and here he lay all night in the rain.
the next day was market-day in ballybor, and many of the country people started early in their carts for the town, and though none drove over the herd, yet one and all passed by on the other side.
luckily, when the herd was nearly gone from cold and exposure, the good samaritan appeared in the shape of carew driving to ballybor, and in a short time he had coleman back at rossbane in front of a big turf fire; and after placing him in charge of the cook, brought the herd’s family to a cottage in the yard, and then drove into ballybor to see blake. but the d.i. had his hands too full to be able to give protection to individuals.
at this time, next to sinn fein, the transport union was the strongest party in the west, and being composed of landless men, its main object was to gain land for its members by all and every means in its power, with the result that their attention was concentrated 127on outing all men with four hundred acres or more in their possession, and next would come the men with three hundred acres, and so on down the scale.
the farmer with forty acres or thereabouts—the best class of small farmer in the west, and if let alone the most law-abiding, as they are numerous and possess something worth holding on to—soon realised where this would lead to, and tried to apply the brakes. they would have succeeded but for their younger sons, who, in the ordinary course of events, would have found good employment in the states, but under present circumstances have to remain at home helping to make small fortunes for their parents. it is this class of young men who, with the shop boys, form the rank and file of the i.r.a., and in the case of the farmers’ sons it is the western peasants’ usual characteristic of “land hunger” which forms the chief driving power.
at one period it looked as though sinn fein and the transport union would come to loggerheads; but sinn fein proved too strong, and the two became partners to all intents and purposes.
a few days after he had returned from his fruitless visit to blake, carew received a letter from the secretary of the local branch of the transport union calling upon him to dismiss coleman, and that if he did not comply at once the union would call out all his men. carew ignored the letter and the threat.
the owenmore river runs through rossbane, 128roughly dividing it into two equal parts, and after a fortnight carew received a letter from the i.r.a. calling upon him to attend a sinn fein court the following sunday night at cloonalla chapel, and saying that the part of his demesne separated from the house by the river was to be taken from him, and if he wished to claim “compensation” he must attend the “court.” and again carew ignored the letter.
a week afterwards all his farm hands and servants, with the exception of the cook, katey brogan, simply vanished, and carew found himself with only katey and coleman to keep going a large house and a four-hundred-acre farm. nothing daunted, he took the colemans into the house, made mrs coleman cook and katey housemaid, whilst coleman and he determined to carry on with the farming as best they could.
a few days after a little girl brought a message that katey’s father was very ill, and that her mother wished her to go home at once; so katey left immediately, and the following day carew rode over to see if he could help the brogans, knowing that they were miserably poor.
the brogans lived in a two-roomed hovel on the verge of a bog, and on entering a terrible sight met carew’s eyes. the old man lay dead in one bed, katey dead in the second bed with a large bullet-hole through her forehead, and the old mother crooning over the fire ashes, stark mad.
he then tried to find out what had happened 129from two neighbouring cottages, but in each case the door was slammed in his face with a curse of fear. after wandering about for over an hour he met a small boy, who told him the details of the worst murder the country had yet seen.
it appeared that katey must have written to the police in ballybor with reference to the treatment of the colemans, and that the letter had fallen into the hands of sinn fein agents in the post office.
using old brogan’s illness to decoy katey home, the murderers waited until midnight, when they knocked at the door. at the time katey was sitting by the fire making broth for her father, and at once opened the door, to be confronted by eight armed men wearing white masks and black hats, one of whom said, “come with us.” apparently katey refused, whereupon they seized her, bound her wrists, and dragged her screaming and struggling to a field some hundred yards from her home.
here they tried her by court-martial, convicted her, and no time was lost by the assassins in carrying out the death sentence. they then flung her body outside the cottage, where it was found by her mother, whose cries brought old brogan out of his bed, and between them they managed to carry their murdered daughter in. the shock was too much for the old man, and he died shortly after he returned to bed, which finally turned the old woman’s brain.
then followed weeks of misery. every night carew’s cattle were driven, his gates taken off 130their hinges and flung into the river, trees were cut down, fences smashed, and the showing of a light at any window was the signal for a volley of shots. life in the trenches on the western front was often fearful enough, but to realise the life carew and his herd led at this time one must remember that they had to carry on week in week out, with no rest billets ever to retire to, apart from the fact that at any moment sudden death in some horrible mutilating form might be their lot.
the first fair at which carew tried to sell cattle warned him of the futility of attending any more. sinn fein “policemen,” with green, white, and yellow brassards on their arms, took care that no buyers came near him, while all the corner boys in ballybor amused themselves by driving his cattle backwards and forwards through the fair until they could hardly move. directly carew would make for one set of tormentors, a fresh lot would appear behind his back and take up the chase.
after starting coleman on his way home with the weary cattle, he went to the grocer he had dealt with for years, meaning to lay in a good stock of provisions. on entering the shop the owner took carew into a private room, and explained that if he sold one pennyworth of food to him his shop would be burnt over his head that night, and that all the shopkeepers had received the same orders from the i.r.a. carew then went straight to the police barracks, where the police soon bought all that he required.
131it was nearly dark when carew drew near to his entrance gate, and as his horse started to walk four men darted out from the shadow of the demesne wall, two seizing the horse, while the rest, covering him with shot-guns, ordered him to get out.
carew had no alternative but to comply, whereupon his captors led him down a lane towards the river, where they were joined by a crowd of men and boys. on reaching the river a violent argument started, one section being for drowning him out of face, while another wished to give him a chance of his life if he would swear to give up his land. in the end they compromised, and two tall men took carew by the arms and waded out into the river with him until they were over their waists.
the leader then called out to carew that if he would not agree to surrender all his lands and promise to leave the country they would drown him there and then. in order to gain time carew pretended to be greatly frightened, and started a whining altercation with the leader on the bank. as he expected, his would-be executioners soon joined in heatedly, so much so that shortly one let go of his arm, and throwing the other off his balance with a quick wrench, carew dived, and swimming down and across the river under water was soon in safety on the far bank. as soon as the crowd realised that their prisoner had escaped, they opened fire on the river at once, hitting one of the men in the water, whereupon 132the wounded man’s friends turned on another faction and a free fight ensued.
once across the river, carew ran as hard as he could for the house of a friendly farmer living on the main road on the east side of the river, borrowed a bicycle from the man, and set off for ballybor.
by great good luck, as carew reached the barracks in ballybor, he found blake on the point of setting out on a night expedition with a crossley load of police. on hearing his story blake at once agreed to return with him, in the hope that they might be in time to save rossbane.
in order to surprise the volunteers, blake went by the road on the east side of the river, and on reaching carew’s demesne hid the car inside in the shadow of some trees. carew then swam the river, brought back a boat, and ferried the police across in three parties.
the farm buildings and main yard of rossbane lie between the house and the river, and on entering the yard the police found coleman lying insensible and surrounded by his weeping wife and children. learning from the woman that the volunteers were on the point of setting fire to the house, the police, led by blake and carew, who was armed with rifle and revolver, and by now in a white heat of fury, made for the house in two parties, one under carew for the front entrance, and the other under blake for the back.
the last thing the volunteers expected was a brutal assault by the police, and after eating 133and drinking all they could find and looting what happened to take their fancy, they had just sprayed petrol over the hall and set it on fire when the police entered.
it is not often that the r.i.c. have the pleasure of coming to grips with the elusive i.r.a., but when they do they put paid in capital letters to the accounts of their murdered comrades, men shot in cold blood in their homes, or dragged unarmed out of trains and butchered like cattle.
the r.i.c. are probably one of the finest fighting forces to be found in a continent where, at the present day, practically every man is trained to arms, and most people have seen the fight cornered rats will put up.
the main hall of rossbane was in the centre of the house, and after setting fire to it the volunteers had started to leave, some by the front door and others through the kitchen, with the result that they ran into the arms of the police, who did not waste time with futile shouts of “hands up,” but proceeded at once to business.
at first they fought in darkness; but soon the flames gathered strength, and their glow silhouetted the forms of the volunteers, giving the police as good targets as man could wish for.
in a short time the volunteers broke; some rushed upstairs never to be seen alive again, while others fled into the drawing-room which opened off the hall, only to find escape cut off by heavy barred shutters. by now the centre of the house was burning fiercely, and all the 134police had to do to complete the rout was to wait outside the two exits and let the flames act the part of ferrets. ten minutes more saw the end, and with it the few volunteers who escaped with their lives, handcuffed together in a miserable group in the big yard, covered by two black and tans. and when the captain of the rossbane company of the i.r.a. revised his company roll, his pen must have been busy with “gone to america” after many names.
dawn broke on a sight worthy of modern russia, on the smouldering ruins of the fine old house, on the wretched groups of singed and blackened volunteers, and on the group of still weeping colemans huddled in a corner of the yard as far from the fire of the volunteers as they could get.
carew, still undaunted, though wounded in a leg and shoulder and soaked to the skin for hours, wished to stay on in the cottage in the yard; but as soon as the fight was over, blake had sent half his force back to ballybor in the crossley to bring out more transport, and the argument was settled by the arrival of two crossleys and three fords, in which blake returned to barracks, taking carew and the colemans with him as well as the prisoners. it was impossible to leave any police at rossbane; the wounded had to be attended to, and blake rightly guessed that the volunteers had had a dose that night which would keep them quiet for some time to come.
carew’s wounds were only slight, and the 135following day he was determined to return to rossbane. poor coleman had no option but to go with his master, having no money, a family to provide for, and knowing full well that he might as well ask for the crown of england as seek employment elsewhere in the west, while emigration to the states was out of the question.
blake was now in an awkward dilemma. unable to give carew protection, he feared that if he returned the chances were that both he and the herd would be murdered. however, carew was determined to go, so blake gave out on the quiet that if anything happened to either of them the auxiliaries would be called in, and let him go.
for some time carew lived in peace. the fight at the burning of rossbane had put the fear of god into the local volunteers, and most of them would as soon have faced a lewis gun as face carew in a fighting mad temper, while the threat of the auxiliaries stayed the hands of the “shoot him from behind a wall brigade.”
at length carew went up to dublin to find out about the payment of his malicious injury claim for the burning of rossbane, and on his return was met at ballybor station by blake with the news that some i.r.a. flying column had beaten coleman to death and burnt all the outbuildings at rossbane, not leaving a wall standing.
carew wished now to put up a wooden hut at rossbane and endeavour to carry on alone; 136but blake refused to let him go, and in the end he was persuaded, greatly against his will, to sell his lands by public auction.
the auction took place in ballybor, the lands being divided into lots of a suitable size to suit small farmers; but the auctioneers did not receive a single bid—the i.r.a. saw to that.
carew now determined to leave his lands waste, his home in ruins, and as soon as he received the money for his malicious injury claim, to go to british east africa, there to await the return of better days in ireland, when he intends to return and rebuild the home of his fathers. will they ever come?
