IRISH STORIES.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEl " SPECTATOR."' SIR,—In your issue of November 28th, under the above heading, a correspondent purports to give an account of a prisoner tried on the capital charge for having caused the death of a man by breaking his skull in a faction-fight, which is not wholly correct. Here is the true version. A farmer was put on trial at the Clonmel Assizes, at the beginning of the present century, before Lord Norbnry—then known as the "hanging Judge"—for having killed a man in a faction-fight at the fair of Nenagh, by smashing his shill. It the course of the trial, surgical evidence was given that the skull of the deceased was no thicker than an egg-shell. However, the accused was found guilty ; and when asked by the Judge what he had to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon him, he re- plied that "he had nothing to say, only he thought that a man with a skull no thicker than an egg-shell had no business at the fair of Nenagh." This answer so tickled the humorous side of the Judge that he ordered his discharge, observing that the man's death, according to the doctor's evidence, was purely the result of a natural accident ; at the same time, he warned the prisoner that, should he ever again engage in a -faction-fight, to make sure that the man he encountered had a skull thicker than an egg-shell.—I am, Sir, &c., J. H. MCGRATH.
"Waterford Citizen" Office, November 30th.
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