A Phoenix Club in Barefield in 1859

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matthewmacnamara
Posts: 139
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:38 pm

A Phoenix Club in Barefield in 1859

Post by matthewmacnamara » Fri Dec 21, 2018 12:59 pm

In March 1859 a number of men from Barefield appeared in
court in Ennis charged with being members of a
Phoenix club. [Limerick Chronicle, 12 March 1859]

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: A Phoenix Club in Barefield in 1859

Post by Sduddy » Thu Dec 10, 2020 11:33 am

The charge against six men with being members of a Phoenix Club in Barefield was dismissed at the Ennis Petty Sessions on Thur 24 Mar 1859. The basis for the charge was a statement made to the police by Thomas Rice/Royce. What that statement consisted of is not reported, but, at the hearing, Royce said that there was an omission in his statement, i.e. that he had heard one of the men say “the Queen of England was now engaged with war in India, and that now was the time to subdue her.”
The Clare Journal, Thur 10 Mar 1859:
A Phoenix Club at Bearfield. Considerable sensation was created in Ennis, on Tuesday, in consequence of the arrest of five men at Bearfield, near this town, charged with being members of a Phoenix Club.
The prisoners were arrested on the evidence of a man named Thomas Rice, a schoolmaster, and were brought into town on Tuesday morning, and lodged in the police barrack, from whence they were committed to the county jail, to await their examination before the magistrates.
The appearance of the prisoners excited but little interest, as they were marched through the town, accompanied by a few policemen, armed merely with their side-arms.
The parties charged are of rather an humble class of life, and are young men occupied as labourers and farm servants, their names are: Thomas Galvin, Timothy Malone, James Reddan, Patrick Whelan, and Patrick O’Connors.
The Clare Journal, Thur 24 Mar 1859:
An adjourned court of petty-sessions was held this day, when the men charged with being engaged in the Phoenix conspiracy were brought up for final examination. The body of the court-house and galleries were crowded, and there was a numerous attendance of magistrates on the bench, among whom we noticed Wainright Crowe, Captain Butler, Adams Brew, J. Bonyage, E. Blake, Captain Patterson, J. Mahon, M. Keane Esqs., &c. &c. Sub-Inspector Heard was also in attendance.
The Traversers – James Moran, Timothy Malone, James Reddan, Thomas Galvin, Pat O’Connors, and Pat Whelan, having been out on bail, were severally called into court, and accommodated with seats in the body of the court to the right of the table.
The Bench having asked were all the traversers in attendance, and the approver, Thomas Royce, was answered in the affirmative, by Mr. Hynes, who appeared for the traversers, and by the police sitting near Royce.
The Bench, (to Mr. Heard,) – Have you received any further corroborative evidence.
Mr. Heard – None whatever.
There follows a long questioning of Thomas Royce, by Mr. Hynes, the purpose of which seems to be to discredit Royce, leading to a dismissal of the charges against the men. In the course of his defence, Hynes describes the men as respectable farmers.

The Clare Journal of Mon 25 Jul 1859, in a report on the Summer Assizes, refers to the winding up of the much more famous case (The Queen v Sullivan and others) against the members of a secret society called the Phoenix Society in the Skibbereen area of Co. Cork. The Clare Journal is satisfied that such societies have been put an end to:
The Assizes. The present assizes or general jail delivery, as it is termed, presents a bright page in Ireland’s history, and one which we may congratulate ourselves on; they yield unmistakeable evidence of the peace, tranquility, and prosperity of the kingdom. In all the assizes, as far as they have progressed, there has been only one capital conviction! – a most gratifying fact, when taken in connection with the population of Ireland, numbering between six and seven millions, and doubly so when compared with the assizes of former times, when, independent of special commission, more prisoners would be tried at one assizes than all that were arraigned at all the assizes throughout the country during the present circuits of the judges.
As for our own assizes in Clare, there were only four criminal cases, one only of which might be termed serious, and to which the plea of guilty was pleaded, the others, such as the young urchin for attempting to set fire to Scariff workhouse, the old man for assaulting his fellow pauper in Tulla workhouse, and the coiner, might, as Judge Keogh remarked, have been disposed of at the quarter sessions, so that, virtually, we might have had no assizes for criminal business had the quarter sessions discharged its functions; and the same may be said of the record cases, a great many of which could have been tried at quarter sessions. This is very different from the Clare of twenty-five years ago.
The Phoenix conspiracy or “combination,” as Judge Keogh termed it, which “frighted the isle from its propriety,” to which a most undue importance was attached by the late Attorney General, Mr. Whiteside, who, with all due deference to his great abilities, made a great mistake when he thought such persons as the accused fit subjects for an important state prosecution – going down in person, with a staff of crown lawyers to prosecute a few obscure, mischievous, half-educated young men.
The unfinished work left on hands by him, as a matter of course, has been taken up by his successor and brought to a successful termination, in which the majesty of the law has been vindicated, the prisoners pleading “guilty” to the charge in the indictment. Such a plea has certainly taken every one a little by surprise, when it is recollected the violent protestations of innocence made by the friends and sympathizers of the prisoners during the proceedings connected with the Phoenixes at the former assizes.
The matter now, we trust, is at an end. These foolish and mischievous “combinators,” have received a wholesome lesson. The admonitory speech of the Attorney-General was excellent, and very much to the purpose, a report of which we give in our columns, and one which, we are certain, will not be lost on the parties to whom it was addressed. The Judge’s charge was equally good, and his allusion to the conspiracy or “combination” happy. We congratulate both him, the Attorney-General, and the country on the results, in thus extinguishing the dying embers of the burnt out Phoenix combinations.
Sheila

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