22 SEPTEMBER 1860, Page 7

IRELAND.

Carrickfergus Castle is to be 'armed with six Lancaster guns, which will give that old keep the command of Belfast Lough.

An attempt has been made at Uphill to shoot the Earl of Leitrim. About two o'clock, on Saturday, as Lord Leitrim was returning from presiding at a meeting of the board of guardians, and while passing the shop of a man named James Murphy, he was fired at, the charge, consisting of three balls, narrowly missing his lordship. It happened that two policemen were in the neighbourhood at the time who having observed a puff of smoke pro- ceeding from the she door, entered and found Murphy standing in front of the shop, holding in his hand a gun, which had evidently been discharged only a moment before. It appears that a few days previously Murphy had eent a written challenge to Lord Leitrim ; and this circumstance, coupled with the fact of his makingthe attempt in a public street, and an hour of the day when detection would have been inevitable, leads to the supposition that the unfortunate man laboured under aberration of mind.

Another account states that Murphy made attempts-on the life of a mem- ber of the family some weeks since. When seized he had in his possession a loaded pistol as well as the blunderbus with which• he fired at the Earl of Leitrim.