The Killing of Leitrim
Taken from The Derry Journal 23rd May 2008

Back in the late 1800s the Third Earl of Leitrim was one of the most hated landlords in Ireland and no more so than in County Donegal where he owned 55,000 acres of land. People labelled him a ruthless tyrant for his countless evictions and his attacks on tenants' rights and all the while anger was mounting.

Affairs came to a head in April 1878 when the Earl was assassinated on the road between Carrigart and Milford. There was jubilation in Donegal and there were celebrations in Derry too. Odd to relate, the Earl had been in the city just the day before. But the incident sent shock waves across the land and gave rise to one of Ireland's great mysteries - who killed Lord Leitrim and how did they pull it off?

On a Saturday morning in February 1879 as the Strabane train pulled into Derry's GNR railway station on Foyle Road two passengers jumped out amid cries of jubilation. It was the McGranaghan brothers of Fanad in County Donegal who'd just been set free from Lifford Jail. They'd been detained there almost a year for the murder of the Third Earl of Leitrim but suddenly they'd been released without charge. Now they were in Derry to shop - and, to celebrate.

A Derry solicitor had represented the McGranaghans and there'd been massive interest in the Leitrim affair here in the city. It probably was no surprise then that as they made their way to the centre of Derry passers-by stopped to shake their hands. Soon a marching band appeared and the two McGranaghans - Bernard and Thomas - were hoisted shoulder-high for a parade through the streets. There was a party atmosphere in Derry that day.

Later a massive gathering saw them off at the Lough Swilly station for the trip to Fahan and the Rathmullan ferry - one of the routes from Derry to Fanad in those times. But why were the McGranaghans set free and, perhaps more to the point, who did kill Lord Leitrim? Even today, well over a hundred years on, many people are none the wiser about this famous assassination.

Certainly while the evidence pointed to the McGranaghans everybody knew they hadn't done the actual killing. As for Fanad, where the plot had been hatched, lips were sealed for decades afterwards - indeed, to this day it's a topic you don't want to discuss openly in that part of the world. Over the years I've been putting the intriguing pieces of the mystery together. It's taken visits to Fahan, to Lord Leitrim's Manorvaughan home at Carrigart, to the main Leitrim estate at Lough Rynn, County Leitrim, and last but not least to the crypt at St Michan's Church by the Liffey in Dublin. Here you find the Earl's last resting place – a grim-looking plain white oak coffin amid the remains of countless ancestors.

Massive estates

The story starts when William Sydney Clements became the Third Earl of Leitrim in 1854. Along with the title he inherited 90,000 acres of land spread across counties Leitrim, Donegal, Galway, and Kildare. Clements had been an army man and it's doubtful if he ever really wanted the title in the first place.

But, once in Ireland, he set about upgrading the whole estate. As a result he began incurring the wrath of just about everyone – his tenants, the Church, the judiciary, even the administration at Dublin Castle. Quite simply he was hated for his rigid, unflinching approach – it was his way or nothing. Lord Leitrim reserved the right to make improvements as he saw fit and those who did not comply, or went about things in their own way, were evicted.

However, the Earl would offer to pay the fares to America for those who'd lost their homes. It's also believed that his rents were very reasonable compared to other landlords. Yet, rightly, or wrongly, history has branded him a tyrant.

Leitrim was tall and strong but he had a limp as a result of a fall from a horse. In appearance he was not particularly striking, nor was he one for socialising. There seemed to be no time for relaxation – he lived to maintain his estates and did so through a strict regime. Claims made at the time that he had abused the daughters of local families are unfounded. And despite the differences with his tenants, his in-laws considered him to be quite a compassionate man.

Fanad plot

Most hostility against him was centred in Donegal, especially in Fanad where he owned 12,000 acres. Evictions were being carried out and it was only a matter of time before a plot was hatched to assassinate the Third Earl of Leitrim. Tradition relates that a meeting took place in McGranaghan's barn between two secret organisations based in Fanad. At this gathering plans as to how and where to carry out the killing were drawn up. Then volunteers were chosen and it was only a question of picking the right day.

That day turned out to be Tuesday 2 April 1878. At 8:30 am Lord Leitrim set out from his house at Manorvaughan near Carrigart to travel into Milford a distance of about 6 miles. The party consisted of two carriages – Lord Leitrim, his clerk John Makim and the driver Charles Buchanan were in front, while behind were the Earl's valet William Kincaid and the driver Michael Logue. Leitim's carriage sped ahead but when they were about three miles from Milford at Woodquarter on the shore of Mulroy Bay they were ambushed by two men.

Buchanan was shot dead and Makim was mortally wounded. Meanwhile Lord Leitrim, who'd been hit on the shoulder, jumped from the carriage and struggled with his attackers. Kincaid, coming along in the second carriage, saw the Earl grappling with a man who had a red beard. As he watched the second attacker came from behind and brought the butt of a gun down on Lord Leitrim's head, shattering his skull. Having killed the three men the attackers fled across Mulroy Bay in the direction of Fanad.

Leitrim was dead and the news hit Ireland like an earthquake. The Catholic Church and the newspapers immediately condemned the killings without reservation and a massive manhunt was set in motion throughout Donegal.

One significant clue was a tuft of red hair found in Lord Leitrim's clenched hand – it had been torn from his assailant's beard in the struggle. At the murder scene evidence lay strewn everywhere – a pistol, a red gunstock, a poteen bottle and, most incriminating of all, a scrap of paper that had been used as gun wadding. When this was examined it turned out to be a page from a child's exercise book and it was traced to Mary McGranaghan of Fanad.

As a result the McGranaghan brothers were immediately implicated, as was Michael Heraghty, who'd owned the gunstock. All three were committed for trial in July 1878 and were detained in Lifford Jail. Michael Heraghty died of typhus in the jail in October 1878 – mind you, in an intriguing twist, some maintained he'd been smuggled out to America. The evidence was not strong enough to convict the McGranaghans and as we saw earlier they were eventually released the following February.

Clocks turned back!

During the initial court proceedings it was revealed that Lord Leitrim's police escort had not arrived at Manorvaughan to take him to Milford on the morning of the fatal shooting. Later it was discovered that the clocks in the house had been put forward so that Lord Leitrim was on the road an hour earlier than he should have been. So there was inside help at Manorvaughan. It also appears that the second carriage carrying the butler had been deliberately slowed by maiming the horse – this isolated Leitrim up ahead and left him an easy target.

So everything pointed to meticulous planning on the part of the assassins. But who did the killing? It seems that every man, woman and child in Fanad knew but a curtain of silence ensured that the names were kept secret. The police could not get the hard evidence they needed and despite the child's copy book they could not pin anything directly on the McGranaghans.

Curious incident

Then in the middle of the investigations there was a curious in incident in a Fanad pub. A certain local man started to talk about the killings over a drink with one of the investigating constables. The more drink he got the more he revealed until the constable had a full account in his notebook including the names of the assassins. Later that day the constable met a friend and said ' I've earned my penny in Fanad this day!' With that he took a drink from his glass of whiskey and dropped down dead of a heart attack. However, when his notebook was examined the pages with details of the assassinations had been torn out.

Names revealed

Yet apart from the police activities another secret investigation was going on. The Dublin Administration sent money to William Martin, a Milford solicitor, with instructions that he carry out a private enquiry into the killings. Martin's money loosened tongues and he came up with three names - Mickey (Rua) McElwee, Neil Shiels, the tailor, and Michael Heraghty – all of Fanad. He described how the assassinations were planned and carried out but he wrongly alleged that McElwee had killed Lord Leitrim. It later turned out that Heraghty had been at the scene but left before the killings. Michael Heraghty was arrested but Mickey McElwee and Neil Shiels remained free.

Then, just over 80 years later in 1960, moves were made in Fanad to honour the men involved in the killing of Leitrim. As a result a memorial cross was erected in Kindrum. It contained the three names that William Martin had uncovered and described them as the 'Fanad Patriots'. Since that time books by historians Leslie Lucas, Liam Dolan and Fiona Slevin, have fully explored the Killing of Leitrim, and there is also a volume entitled the Fanad Patriots.

Mystery solved

Yet although Neil Shiels the tailor had given some details to his son before he died in 1924, it was still difficult to get a conclusive picture on the Leitrim affair. Then I had a stroke of good fortune while making a BBC documentary. I got word from Fanad that James Shiels, the grandson of Neil the tailor, would talk to me in detail about what he had learned from his father and his grandfather.

Was it a breakthrough? I wondered - would I once and for all get solid information on the killing of Leitrim?

I recall a spring evening quite a few years back in the big kitchen at the Shiels house in Rosnakill at Fanad. The only noise was the quick tick of the Wag on the Wall clock and the situation was tense. Then James Shiels broke the silence dramatically - "Oh yes, me grandfather was the man that struck the fatal blow. It had to be done with the butt of a gun at the wind up... that's how he was finished off."

The words could not have been more startling. On that evening in Fanad, James Shiels described for me in minute detail how everything had happened. At last the truth about the killing of Leitrim had been revealed.

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