Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette - Saturday 17 January 1846
STATE OF THE COUNTRY
Within the last week large parties of men, 50 to 100, have becn seen congregated in fields between Ardcarne and Croghan, the results of such 'meetings' is proved, too frequently, by the assaults committed during the following nights, on the peaceable and innoffensive inhabitants. The country in fact, is in perfect state of disorganization.
It was only Saturday last, that stated the circumstance of a party lying in wait for a respectable gentleman, (Mr. Balfe) in order shoot him, and who shot the horse on which his servant was riding, stating, that if the owner was there, would get the fate of the horse! We find that the Police, in the discharge of their duty at Rooskey, have been assaulted, and obliged to retreat, the particulars which appeal in another column of our sheet this day. In fact, the industrious man, possessing 5 or 10 acres of ground, who will not join those misguided people, appears equally obnoxious to the night legislators, as the proprietors of the soil,— They are anxious, it seems, to banish, if possible, from the land, those who will not join their ranks.
On the night of Sunday last, about 12 clock, 4 men armed with sledges, etc. attempted to force open the hall door Messrs, Harloe, and Roger Irwin, of Lakeview, near Croghan (within about miles of this town.) Messrs. Irwin, having heard the noise, secured the door, and renlj to the queries what they wanted, were desired to open the place or else they would destroy them; the door being secure, the fellows proceeded to break the windows in the lower part the house, and on their entrance commenced destroying all the property within their reach, consisting 6 chairs, 3 tables, on the latter lay 2 or 3 Bibles, which they tore in pieces! After breaking open press they decamped, without offering any personal injury to the inmates. If the Government will not immediately adopt some measures prevent crime in this part the country, those who value their lives, must, if possible, leave it.
STATE OF ROSCOMMON Leinster Express – January 31, 1846 (p 3)
Outrages continue to be perpetrated daily and nightly. Since my last communication the Mollys have turned up some of the lands of Moheedian, the property of Mr. Lloyd, beyond Croghan, county of Roscommon, and also a farm belonging to Mr. Irwin, near Elphin. A respectable gentleman near Boyle, while riding about his on Friday last, was accosted by a man, who handed him a threatening letter. On being asked by the gentleman if the Molly had a pistol, the reply was "Yes, I have three." Whereupon he shot one of them and fired in the air, close by the gentleman's head. The fellow then charged the pistol coolly and deliberately, in the presence of a large assemblage of persons, numbering not Iess than 150, arid he again fired at at the other side of the gentlaman, saying, that "if he not attend to the instructions of the letter, he would be shot in a week." The ruffian departed, firing a third shot on the road, and was not in any wise molested by the peasantry.
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About the Irwin family in this area http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=1352
