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From: "DENIS POWER" <>
Subject: Re: [LIMERICK] Faction Fights - East Limerick
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 12:34:51 +1000
References: <000901c01ce4$6ed2bdc0$d8626395@amx586>


Since this was posted I have been interested in finding out more about these
"events". It appears the people of Limerick were rather less war-like than
some of their neighbours. In Doherty and Hickeys "A Chronology of Irish
History since 1500" the following appeared " June 24th 1834. Over 200
killed and several hundred injured when an estimated 3000 participated in
one of the bloodiest faction fights of the century, between the Coleens and
the Lawlor-Black Mulvihills at Ballyveigh Strand, Co. Kerry.
----- Original Message -----
From: "adcolthirst" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 4:07 AM
Subject: [LIMERICK] Faction Fights - East Limerick


> Extracted from his book " A History of Hospital and its Environs" by
> Michael F. O Sullivan.
>
> "During the first half of the nineteenth century faction fighting was
quite
> common throughout east Limerick. Factions were groups of people of
varying
> numbers who banded together because of real or imagined grievances or
point
> of honour, to fight
> an opposing faction at any public event such as a sports match or at a
fair.
> The largest factions in the area along the boundary of East
> Limerick/Tipperary were the
> 'Three Year Olds' ( leader Paddy Leddin) and the 'Four Year Olds' (
Leader
> Maurice Fitzgerald). While nobody is now sure of the reason for their
> rivalry, the most plausible one suggests it resulted from a dispute
between
> two farmers at a fair as to the age of a bull being sold. And so because
of
> one man's wounded pride, two factions came into being which fought each
> other in large numbers at regular intervals over a long period of time,
> causing many serious injuries and sometime a death..." Fighting was
usually
> done with ash plants... of three to four feet long and about three inches
> in diameter."
>
> "... At the fair of Golden (Tipperary)in 1807, twenty people were killed
in
> a faction fight between "Shanavests" and "Caravats" ,,, At the Fair of
> Hospital on 9 September, 1833, two factions the Connors' and the Hayes'
> exchanged shots and dispersed all attending the fair. On the morning of
the
> fair, constables in Kilteely arrested two men, both named Ryan who had
> assembled to attend the fair with forty others, and the group had a gun
and
> a sword. A few weeks later both factions met again in greater numbers at
> the Fair of Cappamore. In anticipation of trouble, a company of 4th.
> Dragoon Guards was sent to the fair."
>
> " At the Fair of Cahirconlish - the paper of the day described it (the
town)
> as more famed for fighting than for fish- in December 1835, two people
were
> killed and fifty heads broken"
> ... in the 1850's there was an upsurge of fighting around Emly (Co.
> Tipperary). At the 1856 July Fair of Hospital one man was killed and
another
> seriously wounded. The following report appeared in the Limerick Reporter
> and Tipperary Vindicator of July 11, 1856:
>
> " A desperate faction fight occurred on Wednesday at the fair of Hospital
> between old rivals; The Two Year Olds, and The Three Year Olds. Blood
> flowed profusely on both sides and this horrible, barbarous and infamous
> practice gave universal disgust to all who witnessed the insane battling
of
> two parties of men..." "Upwards of twenty of them were arrested and
lodged
> in the Bridewell"
>
> Arly.
> "
>
>
> ==== IRL-LIMERICK Mailing List ====
> GENUKI: County Limerick http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/irl/Limerick/
> County Limerick Website
http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/county/limerick.html
> Limerick GenConnect Board
http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/Ireland/Limerick
> Limerick Site:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/6108/limerick.htm
> McCarthy Home Page with many Limerick Records:
http://wexlababe.home.att.net/
>
>

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