The inquest on Mr. John Mandeville—who died six months after
his release from Tullamore Gaol, where he underwent two months' imprisonment—which was formally opened on Thursday, July 12th, concluded on Saturday, July 28th, with a verdict declaring that the deceased died from "cellular inflammation of the throat," " brought about by the brutal and unjustifiable treatment he received in Tullamore Gaol." Shorn of its rhetorical trimmings, the evidence upon which this verdict was based was very slight. The doctors called to prove his ill-treatment in prison had to admit that the plank- bed was provided with a mattress, and that the floor of the cell was covered with matting, and that the ordinary prison dietary was not bad—(Mr. Mandeville, it should be said, how- ever, was during the term of his imprisonment constantly put upon punishment diet)—but they maintained, notwith- standing, that if he had not been imprisoned, he would be alive to-day. The evidence to the contrary was, however, far more explicit and, prima fade, far more reasonable. Dr. M'Cabe, at the time the medical member of the Prisons Board, and Dr. Barr, a Liverpool physician and the medical officer of the Kirkdale Prison, both of whom had examined Mr. Mandeville carefully, declared confidently that he did not, while in prison, suffer in health. Dr. Barr—and in this he was supported by Dr. Moore, a Dublin physician—also stated that the accounts given by the doctors who attended Mr. Mandeville before his death, pointed to the fact that they had not managed his case skilfully or well.
Previous page
