Bull-baiting
During the eighteenth century in Dublin, the barbaric practice of bull-baiting was a commonplace pastime among the poor of the city. While the gentry and the merchant classes could amuse themselves on the city’s bowling greens, promenade around Stephen’s Green or indulge in a spot of duelling, the lower orders had to content themselves with a visit to the local cock-pit or the bullring in the city’s Cornmarket.
The Cornmarket was one of the main venues for bull-fighting, which took place between bulls and vicious dogs that were specially bred for the purpose. The dogs – similar to today’s Staffordshire terriers – were small animals with big heads and had large powerful jaws.
The bull was tied to the bullring with a length of rope just long enough to give him a fighting chance and one or more dogs were then set on the unfortunate animal with the aim of bringing him to the ground. Although the bull usually came off worse in these contests, the dogs were sometimes trampled during the fights and often suffered broken ribs and legs. These dogs were so ferocious that they often fought on despite their injuries and there are tales of dogs continuing to attack the bulls on three legs after a broken leg had been cut off.
At one time it was traditional for every newly elected lord mayor of Dublin to supply the practitioners of bull-baiting with a new rope for their pastime. One mayor who was opposed to the practice refused to supply the rope until the bull-baiters arrived at his house threatening to burn it to the ground, forcing him into a swift change of mind. It is believed that the practice continued until another mayor, who was made of sterner stuff, invited the mob to come and get the rope while pointing a pistol at them. Some hardy souls did have a go but the mayor soon sent them on their way with a few well-aimed blasts of his weapon.
The bulls were usually seized by the bull-baiters on the way to the market or ‘borrowed’ on their way to the slaughterhouse to provide an afternoon’s entertainment for the mob. Although the bull was usually given back to its owner at the end of the fights, they were generally close to death and its market value greatly deflated because of the injuries received.
These bull-fights sometimes led to rioting when the police attempted to intervene, as evidenced by the confrontation that took place in Dublin on St Stephen’s Day in 1789 between the bull-baiters and a detachment of soldiers from the Castle guard.
Mr Vance, one of the High Sheriffs of Dublin, was given information that the bull-baiters and their dogs had gathered in a field near North Strand on that day and he rode out with the Castle guard in an attempt to disperse the mob. There was some skirmishing in the field and dogs were set on the sheriff and his men and some stones were thrown. The sheriff ordered his men to fire over the heads of the mob and some arrests were made in the field.
As the crowd made its way back into Abbey Street, the sheriff, for some unknown reason, ordered his men to fire into the crowd, which resulted in the deaths of Farrell Reddy – a Dublin coach maker – and three others.
Vance was later charged in connection with the murder of Farrell Reddy but following an elaborate show trial presided over by Baron Richard Power the jury, after deliberating for only five minutes, found the sheriff not guilty.
The practice of bull-baiting was banned in Ireland in 1798.
Kevin Street Killing
The Dublin newspapers of December 1802 carried details of the trial of William Shields, who had been arrested for the murder of a Dublin cooper, Thomas Ryan, on the night of 14 July earlier that year.
On the night in question Ryan had been in Kevin Street where a bonfire had been lit to celebrate the anniversary of the French Revolution. While the celebrations were in full swing, a number of men armed with shotguns emerged from Cathedral Lane near the fountain on Kevin Street and began to fire into the crowd. Thomas Ryan was fatally wounded in the incident and his body was left lying in Kevin Street until the next morning.
William Shields was later arrested in Navan for the murder of Ryan and he was put on trial for the crime on 6 December 1802. Two other men who had been arrested along with Shields were also charged with the murder but were subsequently discharged.
Richard Roche, a Dublin surgeon, gave evidence to the court that he had examined the deceased and found that he had died from a single shot to the head.
A witness Michael Johnson gave evidence that he knew the accused well and had seen him – with nine or ten others – approach the bonfire near the fountain. Johnson stated that he heard Shields threaten ‘to make a lane among the crowd at the fountain’ and then heard another man call out to Shields, ‘Don’t fire, if you do you will commit murder’. A shot rang out immediately afterwards and Johnson saw Ryan fall to the ground.
Another man who had been wounded during the incident, Andrew McManus, gave evidence that there had been a large crowd of men, women and children at the bonfire at the time of the shooting. However, he claimed that he didn’t know what the celebration was about, although he did say that the fountain had been covered in green decorations.
Another witness, Margaret Kearns, said that she saw the accused along with three other men named Kinch, Murray and Watson, firing at the crowd that had gathered round the fountain. She then saw Shields firing a single shot at one man, who then slumped to the ground.
Another witness, Michael Reid, with an address at Inns Quay, said that he had met Shields and a guard of soldiers, who were escorting him to Kilmainham Jail. When Reid asked the soldiers what the prisoner had done, Shields interrupted by saying that he had ‘only killed a Croppy’ and lamented that it wasn’t too long in the distant past that he would have been thanked for his actions instead of being arrested.
Witnesses for the defence stated that there was serious rioting taking place in Kevin Street and its environs at the time of the shooting and one witness alleged that he had seen a man brandishing a pistol at one of the bonfires.
One witness – Mr Wilson, who was a magistrate – said that he had prior knowledge that there would be rioting in Kevin Street on the night in question and went to tour the area with a body of watchmen. Wilson claimed that there was also a bonfire in St Patrick’s Close and in Patrick Street, where he and his men were stoned by an unruly mob, and that rioting had taken place in the area during the two previous nights.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against Shields, the jury returned after deliberating for half an hour with a ‘not guilty’ verdict.
First Horse Show
In this day and age the annual Dublin Horse Show attracts a huge number of visitors to the RDS in Ballsbridge and many more follow the proceedings on the television. However, it’s a far cry from the very first horse show staged by the Royal Dublin Society on Leinster Lawn in the grounds of Leinster House on 28 July 1868.
Just 6,000 people attended the inaugural event. Horse shows had taken place in 1864 and 1866 but these events – run by the Royal Agricultural Society – were effectively sideshows at their annual agricultural fair. The first of these, organised by Lord Howth, took place on Leinster Lawn on 15 April 1864, and the second took place in September 1866.
In 1867 the Agricultural Society and the Royal Dublin Society – alarmed at the declining number of horses in Ireland – decided to hold a show exclusively for horses and this took place at St Stephen’s Green during the month of September that year. This experiment proved so successful that the RDS decided to make it an annual event that has endured to the present day and is a popular feature in Dublin’s sporting calendar.
The first horse show run exclusively for horses by the Royal Dublin Society ran for three days beginning on 28 July 1868 in grounds surrounding Leinster House. There was a poor attendance on the opening day – mainly due to heavy rain and the exorbitant admission price of ten shillings – but matters improved greatly over the following two days. The entrance fee was hastily reduced to five shillings and then to two shillings and sixpence, which had the desired effect of increasing the number of visitors.
Nearly 400 horses took part
in the show and there were over 6,000 visitors, who were entertained by military bands and a wide variety of sideshows. There were also a wide range of commercial stands in evidence at the first horse show, many of whom were household names in the city.
One of the main attractions of the show was the jumping event which took place in the courtyard of Leinster House on the first day. The event had only been added to the programme three days earlier on the suggestion of Lord Howth, who urged the committee to organise a jumping competition along the same lines as the Islington Horse Show.
The centrepiece of the jumping arena was a stone-wall obstacle described by a writer in the Irish Farmers Gazette as being ‘five feet ten inches, in cold blood, off wet sawdust, in a crowded courtyard’. So many people had gathered to view the jumping competition that the makeshift wooden terraces collapsed, throwing many spectators into the mud created by the weather. However, there were no reports of any injuries.
The show jumping event was won by a horse called ‘Shane Rua’ owned by a Mr R. Flynn.
The first Dublin Horse Show was later described by the Irish correspondent of the London Times as ‘not only the best which has ever been held in Dublin, but in the estimation of some judges it would easily bear comparison with any of the great shows on the other side of the channel’.
In 1881 the Dublin Horse Show moved to its present location at Ballsbridge. At the time that the move was being proposed it was feared in many quarters that Dubliners would not travel to what was then seen as the outskirts of the city for the event. However these fears proved groundless and the Dublin Horse Show continued to grow from strength to strength into the international event that it is today.
Parliament Fire
One Friday evening on 24 February 1792, the old Irish Parliament House on College Green – now owned by the Bank of Ireland – was extensively damaged by fire and it was only saved from total destruction following the intervention of students and staff from Trinity College just across the road.
The Irish Parliament was discussing a bill on ‘spirituous liquors’ when a shout from above warned the MPs that the building was in flames and in imminent danger of collapse. Instead of immediately fleeing to safety, however, the MPs respectfully waited for the Speaker of the House to officially propose an adjournment, which he did with some haste. Understandably, the motion was unanimously passed without further debate and, with flames leaping all around them, the MPs and members of the public who had been sitting in the gallery, fled in all directions from the advancing inferno.
Within a short space of time the furnishings and fittings of the chamber of the House of Commons had been reduced to ashes, while the great copper dome which covered the round room eventually melted and crashed in on the chamber.
First to arrive at the scene in response to the clanging of the fire bells were the college fire engines manned by students and staff of Trinity College and it was mainly due to their efforts that the fire was contained to the round room of the Parliament building.
The fire was brought under control by nine o’clock that evening and it was entirely extinguished in the early hours of Saturday morning. In the days following the fire, the students – who usually only appeared in newsprint when they had done something wrong – received great praise from all quarters. One newspaper described their efforts as ‘almost beyond belief … amid thousands of idle and unconcerned spectators they alone … seemed impressed with the importance of preserving an edifice highly ornamental to the capital … It gives us particular pleasure to be able to announce the strenuous efforts of these gentlemen’.
The students had been barred from sitting in the public gallery of the House of Commons some time earlier, but despite their ‘strenuous efforts’ to save the building, they still weren’t allowed to sit there afterwards because of objections made by several MPs.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire several possible temporary locations for the sitting of Parliament were proposed, such as Trinity College, the Rotunda and Leinster House. It was eventually decided that Parliament would sit at the Blue Coat Hospital in Phoenix Park and that the Commons would take up temporary residence in the Records Office in Dublin Castle while the parliament building was being repaired.
A few days after the fire a committee was appointed to establish the cause of the blaze. Although many theories were advanced as to the cause of the inferno it was eventually established that the department responsible for the maintenance of the building had been experimenting with a new heating system which conveyed hot air from a furnace around the walls of building. One of the pipes just under the roof had ruptured and sparks from the furnace had apparently set the woodwork on fire with disastrous consequences.
The Parliament building was eventually restored at a cost of approximately £50,000 and it was sold to the Bank of Ireland following the Act of Union of 1800.
Father Vlad
An unusual trial took place at Green Street Court on 7 December 1855 when Father Vladimir Petcherine, a Redemptorist priest from Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) was accused of burning a Protestant bible ‘in company with books acknowledged to be of an improper and immoral character’ and a number of other books at the parish church in Kingstown.
Earlier in October that year Father Petcherine had mounted a campaign in Kingstown against ‘immoral literature’ and he urged his parishioners to hand in books, newspapers and periodicals which might be seen as being offensive to one’s morals.
A large number of these items were handed over and on
5 November, Father Petcherine gathered them all into two wheelbarrows and brought them to the parish church where they were set on fire in the yard.
Reverend Robert Wallace, the Protestant rector of Kingstown, was passing the church some time afterwards and he noticed some boys kicking the smouldering remains of books, one of which he discovered was the remains of a bible.
Four days later he got up in front of his congregation and spoke at length on the subject of bible burning. He also wrote a pamphlet on the issue and letters to the newspapers in connection with the matter.
The authorities took an interest in the case at this point and Father Petcherine was subsequently charged with the crime of ‘blasphemously burning and treating with contempt the Holy Scriptures, thereby tending to bring religion into contempt at Kingstown on November 5 th inst’.
The case created a huge amount of public interest in Dublin and when Petcherine’s trial opened on the morning of 7 December, the area surrounding the courthouse was thronged with curious onlookers. Admission to the courthouse was by ticket only and by the time the judges arrived the court was full to capacity.
The attorney-general, stating the case for the prosecution, said that if Father Petcherine had only burnt books of an immoral nature then he would have no case to answer but if it was proven that he had burnt copies of the ‘sacred writings’ along with them then the priest would be seen to have carried religious zeal’ beyond its legitimate and justifiable bounds. He also stated that the evidence would show that the latter was in fact the case.
Christopher Duff, one of the boys who had witnessed the fire, said in evidence that he had been at Father Petcherine’s house on 5 November and had seen a copy of the New Testament being loaded into the wheelbarrow along with the other books.
Four other witnesses for the Crown, including a Kingstown magistrate, gave evidence that they had seen Protestant versions of the bible in Fr Petcherine’s wheelbarrows. Despite the evidence however, Petcherine was found ‘not guilty’ and when he emerged from the courthouse he was met by a huge crowd that had gathered to support him. Cheering erupted, hats were thrown in the air and it took the priest a long time to make his way to his carriage through the crowd who had pressed forward to shake his hand.
So great was the public interest in the case that many newspapers covering the trial in the city sold out in record time that evening. It was also reported that a large number of houses in the vicinity of the courth
ouse were illuminated by torchlight to celebrate the acquittal of the priest, while another bemused correspondent said that ‘the exultation of the lower orders at the result of the trial beggars all powers of description’.
Three days later, Edward Hayden, described as a supporter of Father Petcherine, was found guilty of the aggravated assault of one of the Crown’s witnesses in the case and was sentenced to serve three months imprisonment with hard labour.
John Atherton
In December 1640, John Atherton, bishop of Waterford, was tried and convicted for engaging in the act of sodomy with his steward and tithe proctor John Childe, for which he was subsequently hanged on Gallows Green in Dublin. There were several lurid accounts written about the case afterwards including one pamphlet which falsely claimed that the bishop had been charged with bestiality and ‘uncleanness with a cow and other creatures’. Another contemporary publication made the claim that he had been convicted for ‘incest, buggery and many other enormous crimes’.
John Atherton was born in Somerset, England, in 1598. He was a member of a wealthy English family and he received his education at Oxford University. Shortly after leaving Oxford he became a rector in the Church of England and he served as prebendary of St John’s in Dublin and chancellor of Christchurch. He came to the attention of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford and lord lieutenant of Ireland, who appointed him bishop of Waterford in 1636.
In 1640 he was accused of engaging in an act of sodomy with John Childe, a charge that he strongly denied in court. However, Childe gave evidence against him and the bishop was condemned to death. It is ironic that Atherton was one of the first men to receive the death sentence for the crime of sodomy, as he had been a leading advocate in the campaign to make the act of sodomy punishable by death.
Hidden Dublin Page 15