The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) 
2 of 2) (1888), by William Henry Hurlbert
 
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Title: Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (2 of 2) (1888)
 
Author: William Henry Hurlbert
 
Release Date: December 29, 2004 [EBook #14511]
 
Language: English
 
Character set encoding: ASCII
 
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND, VOL. 2 ***
 
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Robert Ledger and the PG Online
Distributed Proofreading Team
 
IRELAND UNDER COERCION
THE DIARY OF AN AMERICAN
BY
WILLIAM HENRY HURLBERT
 
VOL. II.
 
_SECOND EDITION._
 
1888
NOTE H2.
 
BOYCOTTING THE DEAD.
 
(Vol. ii. p. 151.)
 
The following official account sent to me (July 24) of an affair in
Donegal, the result of the gospel of "Boycotting" taught in that region, needs and will bear no comment.
 
Patrick Cavanagh came to reside at Clonmany, County Donegal, about two
months ago, as caretaker on some evicted farms. He died on Wednesday
evening, June 20th, having received the full rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The people had displayed no ill-will towards him during his brief residence at Clonmany, and on the evening of his death his body was washed and laid out by some women. On Thursday two townsmen dug his grave, where pointed out by Father Doherty, P.P.
 
The first symptom of change of feeling was that on Thursday every
carpenter applied to had some excuse for not making a coffin for the
body of deceased. On Friday morning the grave was found to be filled
with stones, and a deputation waited on Father Doherty to protest
against Cavanagh's burial in the chapel graveyard. He told them to go
home and mind their business. About 10.30 A.M. on Friday the chapel bell was rung--not tolled or rung as for service, but faster. The local
sergeant of police went to the cemetery; when he arrived there the
tolling ceased. He then went to Father Doherty, who told those present
that their conduct was such as to render them unfit for residence
anywhere but in a savage country. He told them to go to their homes, and advised them to allow the corpse to be buried in the grave he had marked out. After Father Doherty had left, the people condemned his
interference, and said they would not allow any stranger to be buried in the graveyard. When Constable Brady put it to those present that their real objection did not lie in the fact that Cavanagh had been a
stranger, he was not contradicted.
 
The body was ultimately buried at Carndonagh on Saturday, several people remaining in the graveyard at Clonmany all through the night (Friday)till the body was taken to Carndonagh for burial.
 
At Carndonagh Petty Sessions, on the 18th July 1888, Con. Doherty and
Owen Doherty, with five others, were prosecuted for unlawful assembly on the occasion above referred to. The first two named, who were the
ringleaders, were convicted, and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment
each with hard labour; the charges against the remainder were dismissed.