Search Results for 'County Prison'

When the English forces regained control of Castlebar after the departure of General Humbert, the greater part of the County Prison on the Green was taken from the control of Governor Henry Moran and set aside for military purposes. Provost Martial William Clavroge assumed responsibility for the military section and military prisoners. Apart from a few common criminals, the prison population of 190 comprised captured Irish rebels, deserters from the British military and militias, and political prisoners such as John Moore.

The sound of artillery and musket fire has died away. Dead combatants and military ordinance are scattered on the Green in Castlebar. Outside the County Prison on the Green, the blood-soaked body of a lone Fraser Fencible lay dead on the steps – bludgeoned to death by French infantrymen.

One does not have to dig very deep into the archives to find evidence of wholescale corruption, pervasive nepotism, and general theft of public monies by public representatives and officials in nineteenth-century Mayo.

Much of what has been written about capital punishment in nineteenth-century Mayo has been written without reference to the significant body of records from the period. Hanging was a state enterprise, and the state kept detailed records.