In 1857, the Fermanagh Mail and Enniskillen Chronicle, reported that on Sunday, 1st February, 1857, at two o’clock in the morning, Zachariah Wallace, proprietor of the Anglo-Celt had died. He was only 35 years old. Although Wallace was much loved by the people of Cavan, he had suffered a personal misfortune that was brought about as a result of an article he penned. Wallace fearlessly asserted the rights of the Irish people and unflinchingly pointed out abuses of power.
Freedom of the Press
In 1851, Wallace published an account of the Six mile-bridge tragedy, in which he accused the 31st Regiment, under Captain Eger of slaughtering ‘the Irish people at Six mile-bridge, in the County of Clare.’ Wallace added, ‘in another place we publish a portion of the evidence given at the inquest, by which it will be seen that the men under the command of Captain Eger were guilty of willful and deliberate murder. We presume that Captain Eger was in command of the party who butchered our fellow-countrymen in open day upon their native soil.’
The Government of that time, being somewhat hostile to public freedom, were hot in their haste to have Zachariah Wallace arrested and tried for libel. It was stated by the Attorney-General, that Wallace ‘had maligned the military, and cast odium upon them.’ His trial was costly, and it was with great Cavan generosity that the local people set-up a subscription to pay for his defence. Wallace, a liberal Protestant, was strongly admired for having taken a stand against intolerable injustice. In April 1853, the Anglo-Celts’ owner was convicted of having libeled the 31st Regiment, and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at Cavan Gaol, along with an additional fine of £50.
Wallace never fully recovered from the ordeal of prison and died three years later from ‘disease of the heart’. A report on his funeral, noted that, ‘on Tuesday morning last a sad cortege wended its narrowing way to the Cavan railway station (current-day Anglo-Celt offices); a sad cortege passed on to Dublin, and thence a cortege still more sad, because the hour of final parting was so near, proceeded to the little cemetery of Coolock, where beneath the spreading branches of an impending tree’ he was laid to rest.
The Cavan Observer
Joseph Wallace, father of Zacahariah, was appointed executor of his late son’s estate. A court case arose when Charlotte Bourne, an aunt of the deceased attempted to continue publishing the Anglo-Celt. Joseph Wallace sought an injunction to ‘restrain the defendant from collecting or interfering with the debts due to the late Zachariah Wallace, and from using, entering upon, or possessing herself of, or in any manner interfering with, the assets or property of testator, particularly the dwelling-house, printing office, types, printing presses, machinery, or apparatus belonging to the late Mr. Wallace, and used in printing the newspaper called the Anglo-Celt.’
The Anglo-Celt was suspended, owing to Charlotte Bourne ‘not having the necessary securities.’ It was reported that Bourne was about to issue a new newspaper, the Cavan Observer. The Cavan Observer ran from 1857 to 1864, at which time the Anglo-Celt was re-instated.
