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O'Higgins was elected as Sinn Féin member for Queen's County in December 1918 while in prison. He was strongly in favour of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and, when the Irish Free State Parliament was founded on 6 December 1922, he was appointed Minister of Justice. It was in this role that O'Higgins ordered the execution of nearly 80 Republicans, including Liam Mellowes, MP for Meath North and Galway West, and Rory O'Connor, who had been best man at O'Higgins's wedding. In retaliation, the Republicans murdered his father and burnt down the family home. |
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O'Higgins's enemies caught up with him on 10 July 1927, as described in this edited report from The Times of 11 July:- |
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Ireland has been horrified by the news of the assassination today of Mr. Kevin O'Higgins, Minister for Justice and External Affairs in the Free State Government. The story of the crime is a dreadful instance of callous murder. |
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Mr. O'Higgins, who lived at Dunamase, Cross-avenue, Blackrock , started out from his house alone to walk to 12 o'clock Mass in Booterstown Roman Catholic Church, which is only about 400 yards from his home … Mr. O'Higgins had reached the top of Cross-avenue, and was about to turn down an adjoining road to the church when a party of young men, estimated variously at three and five, accosted him. They seem to have been lying in wait round the corner, where they had parked a large touring car, and, as soon as they saw Mr. O'Higgins, they opened fire. He was struck immediately, but was able to stagger across the road to the gate of Sans Souci, the home of Mr. O'Reilly, where he collapsed on the ground beside a lamppost. When he fell the assassins fired several further shots into his body, and then dashed off into their motor-car, in which they drove towards Stillorgan-road. |
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From the outset there was no hope of his recovery. He was wounded in four places. One bullet had entered his head near the left ear and was lodged at the base of the skull; another passed right through his neck; a third had entered his body under the armpit and had passed out again through the chest; while a fourth pierced the liver and lodged in the lower ribs. Surgeons were summoned immediately, but they found that Mr. O'Higgins was far too weak to stand an operation … all the doctors' skill was useless, and Mr. O'Higgins died at quarter to 5. |
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The assassins, three in number, were Timothy Coughlin, Bill Gannon and Archie Doyle. Gannon and Doyle survived for many years after the assassination, dying in 1965 and circa 1987 respectively. Coughlin, however, survived O'Higgins by only 6 months, being shot and killed in mysterious circumstances in January 1928. |
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Romilly was one of the greatest of the parliamentarians of the period, a man whose life was devoted to the reform of the harsh and often illogical criminal law that was in place at the time. He took his own life in a fit of grief brought on by the death of his wife. The following edited account of the inquest which followed his suicide is taken from the Liverpool Mercury of 7 November 1818:- |
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We regret that we have not room to report the whole of the inquest on the unfortunate and lamentable event of the death of Sir S. Romilly. The following is the most material evidence. It was given by the Rev. Dr. Dumont, of Geneva, a very intimate friend of the deceased - "I arrived in the Isle of Wight on the 3rd of October , and Lady Romilly was well enough to spend a few hours in company; but Sir Samuel seemed to have no confidence, and was in the same state of anxiety - Lady Romilly had a relapse. During that time nothing could equal the excruciating pains of Sir Samuel, but his fortitude and resignation. He was almost entirely deprived of sleep, and he has expressed to me his fears of mental derangement. Once he sent for me in the middle of the night, and spoke to me of a dream he had had full of horrors. He asked me if I did not consider that as a proof that his mind was broken. Conversations about his children generally resolved a certain degree of peace to his mind. |
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On Thursday, the 29th of October, about 10 o'clock, while at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, he was informed by his nephew, Dr. Roget, that his lady was no more. I have omitted to say that the two sisters of Lady Romilly came on the Tuesday previous, and he said he could shed no tears when he saw them. He told me his brains were burning hot. He left Cowes with great reluctance the next day. I accompanied him, and on Friday we slept at Winchester. He felt extremely exhausted, and at night was extremely restless. The next morning I observed marks of great agitation, which he tried to subdue; he was constantly tearing his gloves, or the palm of his hand, scratching his fingers and his nose, and some blood came from his nose. When we arrived at an inn on the road, he was so weak that he could proceed no further. We slept there, and Dr. Roget still slept in the same room with him. I had proposed to him not to come to Russell-square, but to take some other house for the night. He answered, that he was desirous of getting home, and he proceeded; but I observed more violent signs of agitation. In a moment that he was shutting his eyes, and wringing his hands. I took the hand of his daughter and placed it in his hand; upon which, opening his eyes, and having perceived what I had done, he cast upon me an unutterable look of gratitude, and embraced his daughter. |
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When we arrived in Russell-square, he made great efforts to compose himself, and went to his library, and threw himself onto a sofa; then for some moments he was joining his hands, as in a state of delirium, but he spoke nothing, and appeared to me to be in the state of a man dying of an internal wound. One or two hours after, he desired to see Dr. Marcet, saying his nephew, Dr. Roget, suffered too much, and that he would give him the comfort. He wanted to consult him, particularly about a shower bath … I slept in a room above him. About seven in the morning (Monday) Dr. Roget came to me in a state of anxiety, telling me that his uncle was much worse, with a violent fever, uttering some expressions in a state of perturbation, and complaining that he was distracted … |
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Mr. Dumont then went to visit Sir Samuel's three younger children and returned to Sir Samuel's house around 3.30, to find that in his absence Sir Samuel had killed himself by cutting his throat. |
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The jury at the inquest returned a unanimous verdict that Sir Samuel had cut his throat while in a state of mental derangement. |
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Sir Eyre Coote was an Irish-born officer in the British Army who served during the American War of Independence and during the Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of General. He was Governor-General of Jamaica between 1806-1808. His career was destroyed in 1816 when he was the subject of a scandal which he had caused in a school for boys. |
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On 25 November 1815 he was caught at the Christ's Hospital School for Boys which he had entered and, once inside, had offered to pay some boys so that he could flog them, and they him. Eyre was charged with 'indecent conduct' and acquitted after making a 'donation' of £1,000 to the hospital, which the hospital refused to accept. However, he also became the subject of a military inquiry in April and May 1816. |
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The following report appeared in the Morning Post of 19 August 1816, prompted by the circulation of a pamphlet concerning this matter:- |
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From the evidence of several boys, a nurse and other persons belonging to Christ's Hospital, it appears, that on Saturday the 25th of November last , Sir Eyre Coote was found … at Christ's Hospital, under the circumstances given in the evidence, and taken before the Lord Mayor, on a charge of improper and indecent conduct in the school. It was also stated, that so far back as two years before, he had twice entered the school, and spoke to the boys in a very foolish, and conducted himself in a very improper manner; but no particular notice was taken of his extraordinary behaviour until the 25th of November last, when he went into the school-room where several boys were assembled, entered into conversation with them, prevailed on some of them, by bribing them with money, to be whipped by him, and afterwards permitted them to exercise the like discipline on himself. On the latter occasion, it happened that Mrs. Robinson, one of the nurses, entered the room, expressed her surprise and indignation, and sent for the Beadle. On the following Monday, Sir Eyre Coote appeared before the Lord Mayor, and being privately examined, declared he was heartily ashamed of his frivolous conduct; and his Lordship concluded that by concealment of all the circumstances as far as laid within his power, he should, upon the whole, best consult the interest of the Hospital, the honour and dignity of the army, and the public feeling. He that the Lieutenant-General had frequently distinguished himself in the service of his country, and was connected with an family; and that, under such circumstances, to expose his folly would be an act of severity, where forgiveness and forbearance would be more becoming. It was then proposed, on the suggestion of Sir W. Curtis, that Sir E. Coote should pay £1,000 for the benefit of the hospital, for which he gave a draft, but the Committee of that Institution refused to accept it. All those facts were afterward stated in a letter from the Lord Mayor to the Duke of York, dated April 10, 1816. This affair, having made a considerable noise, the Commander in Chief conceived it necessary for the honour of the army, that it should be more fully investigated; and, accordingly, he appointed three General Officers to enter on a fresh inquiry. They met at the Mansion-House on the 18th of April; and, on examining several witnesses, a very different impression was produced on their minds from that previously formed by the Lord Mayor. In the meantime, a long correspondence took place between Colonel Bagwell, brother-in-law to Sir Eyre Coote, and Sir Henry Torrens, Secretary to the Duke of York; the former requesting that time might be allowed to produce evidence to show that Sir Eyre Coote had been subject to frequent fits of insanity. A mass of evidence to that effect was collected. Another investigation took place in the middle of May before three General Officers … and after four several meetings, they made a report, of which the following was the principal part: "That although there is ample testimony of very eccentric and incoherent conduct, amounting, perhaps, to derangement of mind; yet, at the period when the aforesaid discovery occurred, he seems to have had such possession of himself as to be fully sensible of the indecency of the proceeding, and capable of adopting the most grounded and prudent means to avoid further disclosure". |
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As a result of this report, Coote was stripped of his rank, dismissed from the army, and his knighthood, which had been granted in the previous year, was revoked. |
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