Finding aid databases

Report by the Garda Siochana on the attempted burning of Portumna Castle sent, with related documents, to the Secretary, Department of Justice, 14 November 1928. On 4 October 1928, Miss Minnie Gorman, employed on the Lascelles estate, Portumna, reported that some buildings on the estate were on fire. Mrs Gage who had been sent over from England to prepare the house for the visit of Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles was first to discover the fire when she was awakened by flame flares. The report continues to discuss the suspects, members of the Irregulars, in the arson attempt.

s 5784

Report

Memorandum on the petition of Patrick Aylward, serving a life sentence for the murder of an infant, William Holden, in County Kilkenny, signed TA Finlay, 19 February 1926.[William Holden was burned alive on the fire in his parents' home]. In his petition Aylward cites three theories for the murder. He claims that Mrs Holden `being a woman of indifferent character and a frequenter of dance houses and not wishing to be burdened with the care of a delicate child (the deceased suffered from rickets) which would curb her dancing propensities, deliberately murdered the child herself. This is a fine theory if there was anything in the case to suggest it, but assuming in the prisoner's favour that Mrs. Holden was and is a woman of the type suggested it would be expected that she would first get rid of a younger child, about three months old, who would be a still greater hindrance to her desire for dancing'. The second theory Aylward suggests is that Mrs Holden got the older children to commit the crime, again for the same purpose of leaving her free for dancing. Thirdly, he suggests that the children committed the crime not realising what they were doing. The memorandum continues: `The petitioner comments on Mrs. Holden's character generally. That, however, would not go to disprove his guilt. Undoubtedly, bad relations existed between the prisoner and the Holden family. He had beaten Mrs. Holden on an occasion prior to the 21st April and to say the least of it relations were extremely strained. The petitioner points out the foolishness of his adopting such a form of revenge as the murder of the child. It may, of course, have been a foolish form of revenge but it must be remembered that the prisoner was admittedly of a very low mental calibre, practically a degenerate, and being of such a character it is difficult to read into his mind and understand the workings of his brain which prompted him to commit the deed'.

s 5832

Memorandum

Statement by Mrs Mary Holden, County Home, Thomastown, 22 March 1929, relating to the death of her child, Thomas Holden, at Owing, Piltown in 1910. She is now homeless and living in the County Home, her husband being dead five years. She believed that the child had lit a candle on the floor and that it set fire to his clothes. She states that the `child was fine and strong. He was not insured. I never insured a child. The man in whose work my husband was at the time gave him timber to make a coffin and to the best of my opinion no help further than this was given towards the burial and no collection was made. I gained nothing over the death of the child and received no money from any source'.

s 5832

Statement

Deposition of John Holden, 17 May 1923, in the case of Saorstát Éireann versus Patrick Aylward. He is first questioned on the burning of another child, Thomas Holden, thirteen years ago. The solicitor for the accused then proceeds to question him on the death of William Holden.
` Q. Does your wife work?
A. Sometimes.
Q. Used not she go working and leave a child of 4 months unattended in the house for a day?
A. She had good hardy boys to mind the child.
Q. How old was the good hardy boy?
A. He was about 11 years of age at the time she used to be going working.

s 5832

Deposition

Copy statement, no date, relating to the case of Patrick Aylward. The Holdens are described as `careless people. Father for some years in an asylum. Mother allowed another child to be burned some years ago, and suffered a term of imprisonment for her careless act'.

Patrick Aylward, Sentence of Penal Servitude for Life

murder

Copy letter to Mr Higgins from J Downey, Bishop of Ossory, 22 December 1923, writing in support of a reprieve of the death sentence on Patrick Aylward. He states that what `evidently inclines the people to Aylward's side is the history and character of Mrs. Holden. She is very negligent in the care of her children, never sent them to school or their religious duties, and one of the children was burned to death while the family lived at Owning. The inference drawn is that such a woman, to escape accusation, might drill the little children to give the evidence they did. … That children may be so drilled is exemplified by a case in Castlecomer (about) 1904. Children there swore in three consecutive trials that they knew nothing of the murder of Daly, but afterwards when removed from Mrs. Daly's influence they admitted knowledge, and Mrs. Daly and Taylor were executed.'

s 5832

Letter

Copy letter to Mr O Higgins from Rev. John Madden, PP and Rev. Fintan Phelan, CC, 18 December 1923, writing in support of a reprieve of the death sentence on Patrick Aylward. `With regard to the mother of the child, we also beg to state that she absolutely neglected the education of her children, the father not being very responsible as he spent a period in an asylum'.

s 5832

Letter

Statement by Patrick Aylward, 14 October 1925, giving details of the events of the day of 21 April 1923 when William Holden was burned alive on the fire in his parents' house. He discusses the bad relations between himself and Mrs Mary Holden. Five months previously he had requested her to keep her boys from chasing his brood sow. `She became very violent and asked me if I had money enough to pay for three chickens which my dog killed on her. I replied that if my dog killed any of her chickens I was prepared to pay for them. She then took up a big scrubbing brush and struck me on the head with it. I had a light walking-stick and hit her back. I then went away and she went on her knees and cursed me'.

s 5832

Statement

Copy petition by Patrick Aylward to the Governor General, January 1926. He argues that the `antecedents of Mary Holden both prior to and since your Petitioner's conviction may be fully enquired into'. He alleges that the death of Thomas Holden was the result of his being left alone while his mother went off to a dance. He states that her `antecedents prior to her marriage show her to have been a woman of a very low type - in fact a tramp - before her marriage to John Holden she had been an inmate of Carrick-on-Suir Work House [sic], and was just the class of person who would not be in the least degree particular as to the means which she adopted in order to be revenged upon your Petitioner for the previous row she had with your Petitioner'.

s 5832

Petition

Memorandum circulated to each member of the Executive Council by the Department of Justice 25 March 1929 on the case of Father Fahy charged with the rescue of the seizure of a herd of cattle by the agents of the Land Commission. The memorandum states that on 25 February [1929] two herds of cattle were seized from the farm of Miss Bridget Nevin, Ballymurray, Loughrea, to satisfy a decree against her by the Land Commission. The cattle were driven to Bullaun where the Court Messenger was met by a crowd of fifteen to twenty people headed by Father Fahy, CC. Fr Fahy himself seized the cattle when none of the rest of the gathered crowd made a move.

s 5837

Memorandum