The most significant and the most painful fact about this
case is the evidence it affords of organised terrorism. For days before the murder, Lord Mountmorres and his people had been placed under ban. His cook was driven away by threats, his serving-boy could not leave the house, no one would carry messages for the family, and the sheep of the tenants who did a day's work for them were killed. When Lord Mountmorres lay dying in the road efforts were made to lift him into a neighbouring cottage, but the owner, a man named Flanagan, with his wife and daughter, positively refused to admit the dying man. They were afraid for their lives. It was fully believed that the peasantry would stop the funeral, and though this was not done, only the priest and one tenant attended it ; while the people on the road between the house and Galway refused to direct strangers to the house, or the scene of the murder. The district, in fact, sympathises with the criminals, who remain undetected, though two men have been arrested.
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