Constable Fennell in County Mayo and the Killing of Ellen McDonagh
Thomas Fennell, in The Royal Irish Constabulary – A History and Personal Memoir (2003) records two instances in which the police had to present deadly weapons. He was posted to Mayo in 1875 and he served there for eight years. According to Fennell, an “instance of firing that might have been avoided” occurred at Inver, near Belmullet, in 1880 (Fennell, 2003, p. 36). A body of policemen escorting a process server was attacked with stones and one shot fired accidentally by nervous constable was followed, (as so often seems to happen in these cases), by a volley of supporting shots from other constables who assumed that an order to fire had been given. Before the officer in charge could stop the firing, a young girl named Ellen McDonagh had been gravely wounded. It took her several days to die. In Fennell’s account, the inquest was abandoned on a technicality and there were no repercussions for the policemen involved. The press reported that the girl had been on the receiving end of a bayonet thrust and that the incident was an example of RIC brutality.
Sometime before the killing of Ellen McDonagh, Constable Fennell experienced a similar situation in the same area. At Stonefield, near Belmullet, a police party protecting a process server was met by a crowd of men and women throwing stones. Some of the police had been hit before the head constable in charge:
…halted the party and warned the people that, if they continued to oppose our advance, it would be for them a serious matter. With fixed bayonets, he ordered the police to advance. The crowd stood their ground and stones hopped off the rifles. Again he halted and ordered the party to load, warning the people that if they did not disperse they would be fired upon…There were twenty police in the party, so that the people would have had little chance if the Head Constable had persisted in forcing his way. The attitude of the crowd convinced him that if he did, lives would be lost. He ordered the police to lower their arms, and unload and, abandoning the attempt to proceed further, marched the police and process server away (Fennell, 2003, p. 37).
The head constable’s actions were later approved by the Castle. In Fennell’s memoirs, the Land War is cast as one of the most difficult periods in the history of the RIC. Before it erupted, “the duties of the force were neither stringent nor disagreeable” (Fennell, 2003, p. 96).
Thomas Fennell, in The Royal Irish Constabulary – A History and Personal Memoir (2003) records two instances in which the police had to present deadly weapons. He was posted to Mayo in 1875 and he served there for eight years. According to Fennell, an “instance of firing that might have been avoided” occurred at Inver, near Belmullet, in 1880 (Fennell, 2003, p. 36). A body of policemen escorting a process server was attacked with stones and one shot fired accidentally by nervous constable was followed, (as so often seems to happen in these cases), by a volley of supporting shots from other constables who assumed that an order to fire had been given. Before the officer in charge could stop the firing, a young girl named Ellen McDonagh had been gravely wounded. It took her several days to die. In Fennell’s account, the inquest was abandoned on a technicality and there were no repercussions for the policemen involved. The press reported that the girl had been on the receiving end of a bayonet thrust and that the incident was an example of RIC brutality.
Sometime before the killing of Ellen McDonagh, Constable Fennell experienced a similar situation in the same area. At Stonefield, near Belmullet, a police party protecting a process server was met by a crowd of men and women throwing stones. Some of the police had been hit before the head constable in charge:
…halted the party and warned the people that, if they continued to oppose our advance, it would be for them a serious matter. With fixed bayonets, he ordered the police to advance. The crowd stood their ground and stones hopped off the rifles. Again he halted and ordered the party to load, warning the people that if they did not disperse they would be fired upon…There were twenty police in the party, so that the people would have had little chance if the Head Constable had persisted in forcing his way. The attitude of the crowd convinced him that if he did, lives would be lost. He ordered the police to lower their arms, and unload and, abandoning the attempt to proceed further, marched the police and process server away (Fennell, 2003, p. 37).
The head constable’s actions were later approved by the Castle. In Fennell’s memoirs, the Land War is cast as one of the most difficult periods in the history of the RIC. Before it erupted, “the duties of the force were neither stringent nor disagreeable” (Fennell, 2003, p. 96).