Peter Dempsey (Kiltullagh)

Peter Dempsey (Kiltullagh) was a tenant farmer who was murdered during the Irish Land War on 28 May 1881.^[1] He was shot to death while walking to Mass with his two daughters across a field mass path.

Dempsey had taken over an 18-acre (73,000 m²) holding near Hollypark, Loughrea after the previous tenant, Murty Hynes, had given it up following a speech by Matt Harris. Hynes relinquished the holdings in September 1880 after Harris, who was a Fenian, Land Leaguer, Irish nationalist and Westminster MP, condemned him in a speech for taking a farm after the previous occupant (Martin Bermingham) had been evicted for non-payment of rent. Dempsey refused to leave the farm and was killed. Two men were charged with murder and were acquitted. Few attended Dempsey's funeral.

See also

• Martin O'Halloran
• James Connors (Kiltullagh)
• John Henry Blake
• Thomas Henry Burke (civil servant)
• Hubert de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde

Sources

• The Land War in South East Galway (1879-1891), a thesis by Anne Finnegan
• As The Centuries Passed: A History of Kiltullagh 1500–1900, edited Kieran Jordan, 2000
  • The Land Wars, Kevin and Kieran Jordan, in op.cit.
• The District of Loughrea: Vol. I History 1791-1918. ISBN 0-9546567-0-9

References