One hundred years ago
One of the most frightful massacres which Ireland has yet witnessed was reported here this day week as having happened in the county of Galway, on the night of Thursday week. The family of a wretchedly poor, industrious pea- sant, John Joyce, of Maamtrassna, a spot in the wildest and most moun- tainous part of Galway, not very far from Cong, was massacred on that night by a party of ten, who killed the father, mother, grandmother, and daughter, on the spot; and wounded the two boys so fatally that one of them died the next day, while the youngest, who is being nursed at Cong, is still in a most critical state. Of what offence against the • assassins Joyce had been guilty is not known, but it is obvious that the Secret Societies of Ireland are afraid of the revolt of the peasantry against their authority, and determined to inspire the utmost terror wherever they see the smallest signs of independence.
Spectator, 26 August 1882
Previous page
