On August 18th , 1830 the Kerry Evening Post reported on a ‘desperate and sanguinary fight’ which took place with shocking consequences at the annual horse fair in Muff, near Kingscourt. The malevolent actions of a few men erupted into a scene of blood-shed and horror, and as a result six people were killed.
The fight had broken out between protestant and catholic factions, leading to terror and the killing of members of the catholic ‘faction’ occurring with many more bystanders receiving serious injuries, amongst whom was a young woman ‘who was stabbed in the breast and shoulder’, Many of those who with injuries, were removed by friends and taken to safety The homes of two protestant men, Walsh and Glasford were completely burned to the ground and at another location, an elderly and ‘respectable’ man named Maharry and his son were travelling home from the fair whilst minding their own business when they were viciously attacked, and his son who was married with three children, was killed ‘on the spot’ within half a mile of Kingscourt town. The dead man’s father did survive, but with terrible wounds.
The Rev. F. Plunket and a number of Catholic priests tried the best that they could to dissuade the ‘infatuated wretches’ from the evil rampage on which they had set out, and it was observed by onlookers that there was strangely a distinct lack of a police in the vicinity on the day and therefore the ‘obedience’ of the crowd was not maintainable. The newspaper added that it was impossible to put into words the state of alarm felt as it rippled through the neighbourhood that morning. On the following day, the community patiently waited for the coroner whose arrival they expected ‘hourly’ in Kingscourt.
The Freeman’s Journal ascertained that the investigations into the Muff killing spree was scheduled to begin at 2.00 pm, on Friday of the same week under Mr Maxwell Blacker, KC, who would carefully examine each witness as they bore testimony to the dreadful occurrence. Also, in attendance, were various members of the gentry including Mr Ruxton, High Sheriff of Meath; Mr Pollard, Magistrate of Meath; the Marquis of Headfort; Mr Napper; Mr Pratt and the High Sheriff of Co. Cavan. It was concluded without doubt that a body of Orangemen had carried out a premeditated attack on unarmed catholics who were peacefully returning home from the fair. On the following day, the Rev. Nolan was questioned; it was his personal view that the events were to be blamed on the negligence of the magistrates who did not supress an ‘illegal’ Orange procession held that day and that the ‘disappearance’ of the police force was the ‘distant’ and ‘primary’ cause of the disturbing scenes at Muff. It was later pointed out by the paper that a group of Orangemen who gathered at the Rock of Muff were armed with bayonets and guns.
The Belfast Newsletter, reported that the shots which killed some men at the fair had come from the homes of Glasford and Walsh whose houses were torched. Both men, along with others recorded as Clarke and Dunne were ‘committed’ to Cavan Gaol to be tried at ‘his majesty’s pleasure’ for the crimes on that terrible day at Muff Fair.
LAND OF GIANTS
Recently, reading about the discovery of a giant buried at Lavey, it reminded me of an article I read from an 1890s paper about the tallest men in the world. It noted that the tallest man in the ‘British Isles’ during the nineteenth century was a Mr McCann from Mountain Lodge, near Cootehill who stood close to seven feet in his socks. The finding of a giant’s grave at Lavey would seem to indicate that Cavan once had very tall warriors in its midst.
In September 1868, the Cavan Weekly News published a letter from Samuel Smith of Lavey Strand, Stradone, who found a giant skeleton buried alongside a large weapon. Smith and a team of workmen were engaged in sinking an aqueduct ‘of ordinary depth’ at the time they came across a ‘layer of flags’ that just looked like a footpath and on raising the stones they discovered a vault measuring sixteen feet by five feet. The skeleton in the grave was huge with a skull that measured forty-five inches in circumference, but unfortunately, Smith did not give the height of the warrior which was presumably around twelve feet or more. Beside the remains, lay a weapon, chisel-shaped with a length of twelve feet, it had a hook on the side. Thankfully, the skeleton may have been sent to a museum for preservation. Samuel Smith wrote: ‘I had the whole (material) carefully removed to my residence at Lavey Strand, and I intend to have them placed in some Museum in Dublin; but before I do the curious can satisfy themselves by paying a visit to my house’. Such a macabre display must have caused a sensation amongst the public who no doubt queued to view the skeleton. Unfortunately,
In December of the same year, the New York Times described the discovery of a giant skeleton in an American quarry from which stone was being taken to build a dam across the Mississippi. The skeleton measured in at ten feet nine inches from head to foot. However, the circumference of the American skull at thirty-one and a half inches was considerably smaller than the Lavey skeleton’s head, which begs the question, what was the actual height of the Lavey skeleton?
