• Home|
• 1859-1900|
• 1901-1930|
• 1931-1960|
• 1961-1990|
• 1991-2007|
• Using the archive

SPECIAL SUNDAY MORNING EDITION

Appalling murders in the Phoenix Park

ASSASSINATION OF THE CHIEF SECRETARY AND THE UNDER SECRETARY

Sunday morning.

The people of Dublin were appalled last evening by a report, which proved unforunately too true, that Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly-appointed Chief Secretaty, and Mr Thomas H. Burke, the Under Secretary, had been brutally murdered in the Phoenix Park.

The statement was first disbelieved, so improbable was such an event looked upon; but later in the night, when inquiries were made, and all the horrible details connected with the assassination became known, public feeling received a shock such as has never been experienced in the country before. The history of Ireland - at least of the period in which we live - may be searched in vain for a record of crime more terrible, or one carried out with more deliberation or determination. It was only on Saturday that Lord Frederick Cavendish shared with the Lord Lieutenant the popular ovation which his Excellency received on his first public entry into the city . . .

Lord Frederick was walking in the Phoenix Park with Mr Burke when when they were both assassinated. They were between the Chief and the Under Secretary's Lodges when they were attacked by four men, who were armed with knives or daggers, who butchered them without mercy. Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr Burke received so many wounds that if each had had several lives he could not have survived . . .

It may be assumed that the idea of robbery in connection with the murder did not occur to the assassins for in the pockets of Lord Cavendish were found a £5 note, £4 in gold and some silver - or, according to another statement, £13 in sovereigns . . .

The police declined to permit the representatives of the Press to see the bodies until after the post-mortem examination, and stated that they had received strict orders which they were obliged to obey . . .

It is stated that within 200 yards of where the murder was committed a number of men were seated who heard nothing of the occurence till a constabulary recruit, who was passing by saw the dead bodies, and shouted out to them.

The account of the transaction which appears to be accepted is: that four men, driving on an outside car through the Phoenix Park, jumped down when they saw the Chief Secretary and the Under Secretary together, stabbed them, took their seats again on the car and drove off again in the direction of Knockmaroon Gate.

A boy named Jacob states that while he was looking for birds' nests in the Park he saw, about 200 yards, from where he was, and convenient to the road, a number of men apparently wrestling. He did not pay much attention to them as he thought they were persons of a class who at times wrestled there. He then saw two men fall to the ground, and four men immediately jumped on a car and drove towards Chapelizod, a village to the west of the city.

From Sunday, May 7th, 1882