ABSTRACT
In August, 1882, a crime was committed in the wild mountains of Connemara which had almost as much importance as the murders in Phoenix Park. It is worth while to study its circumstances and its consequences, for they illustrate vividly the nature of the problem set to Gladstone’s Government in 1882 and the reason why it was left unsolved when he went out of office in 1885. In the House of Commons Gladstone had stood by colleagues whom he trusted, but he was less at his ease about the case than his Attorney General and his Home Secretary. Gladstone and Chamberlain hoped by reforming the government of Ireland to bring to an end the state of things under which the punishment of crime was mixed up with the politics of religion and race.
