MORE than 84 years ago, a father and daughter, who lived in Tullycrine, Kilmurry McMahon, were found not guilty at sending threatening letters to money lenders in Kilrush.

 

John Hassett and his daughter, Jane, were charged with sending the letters to Joshua Dowling and Mortimer Lehane, warning them to discontinue their money-lending businesses and threatening to murder them if they refused to desist. The letters were dated November 23, 1926. The father and daughter were charged at Kilrush court in January 1928 and subsequently sent to Ennis court for trial the following March. According to The Clare Champion report in the January 21, 1928 edition, the letters were purported to have emanated from the headquarters of the West Clare Battalion. They were sent from Dunsallagh Post Office, which was located outside Miltown Malbay on the road to The Hand. At the time, TJ Ryan from Cranny, whose girlfriend was Jane Hassett, was Officer in Command of the West Clare IRA Brigade.

The court, where District Justice Gleeson was sitting, heard that on June 4, 1927, a detective, acting on a warrant, searched John Hassett’s house. He found an Oliver typewriter, which he removed to Kilrush barracks where it became apparent that the typeset was the same as that in the letters sent to Dowling and Lehane. The latter died before the court sat in Kilrush.

The letters and a copy typed on the Oliver typewriter were submitted to a Captain PM Moynihan who was an expert in this field. As a result of his report, John and Jane Hassett were arrested.

The original letter was produced and identified in Kilrush court by Joshua Dowling, who had received it at his office in Moore Street, Kilrush.

The letter drew attention to a previous warning, alleged to have been issued to Mr Dowling, to discontinue his money-lending business. The letter claimed that the recipients business “exploited the poverty and misery of the poorest citizens”. It stated clearly drastic action would be taken to force Joshua Dowling to refrain from money lending. It was signed by ‘P’ Commandant. With the exception of the signature, the letter was typed, as was the address on the envelope.

In court, a Detective Coakley said that on June 4, 1927, he, along with Garda Fitzgerald and McGlynn visited John Hassett’s house with the warrant to search it. Hassett’s daughters, Jane and Margaret, were also in the house at the time. In the parlour, the gardaí found the Oliver typewriter covered with an oil cloth. Detective Coakley asked if the presence of the typewriter could be accounted for.

“That is for you to find out,” Jane Hassett replied. At that point, the detective seized the machine. However, Margaret Hassett reacted negatively to this development and rushed across the room in an attempt to take the typewriter from Detective Coakley. John Hassett intervened and asked the gardaí why they hadn’t removed the typewriter on a previous visit.

“You saw the typewriter 12 months ago and why didn’t you take it?” the court head John Hassett had asked.

Detective Coakley said this was not the case. John Hassett said he had bought the machine for his daughter who was proficient in typing.

Garda McGlynn told the court that when he was taking possession of the typewriter, Margaret Hassett had wrestled it from him and had tried to smash the keyboard. He had considerable trouble in taking it from her. Having eventually done so, he brought the typewriter to Kilrush barracks and presented it to Superintendent Geary.

In court, Captain PM Moynihan, who was a handwriting expert with the Department of Post and Telegraphs, said he was certain the original letters were typed on the machine removed from the Hassett’s house in Tullycrine.

“I can be more emphatic about typewriting than about handwriting. I am swearing positively to my opinion that those documents were typed on the one machine. Of course, I cannot say who typed them,” he added. Captain Moynihan had three decades’ experience of dealing with disputed documents.
However, in answer to defence solicitor FF Cullinan, PM Moynihan agreed that there were perhaps one thousand Oliver typewriters in the South of Ireland at the time.

In conclusion, Justice Gleeson held there was a prima facie case on which the accused should be returned for trial to the next Circuit Court. He noted the typewriter, on which the letters had been typed, was found in the house owned by John Hassett and Jane Hassett lived there and could type. He pointed out, however, anyone might have gone into the house and typed the letter. The defendants were bailed and returned for trial at Ennis District Court in March 1928, where Art O’Connor was the defence solicitor.

As detailed in The Clare Champion court report in the March 17, 1928 edition, much of the evidence heard at the Kilrush sitting was repeated in Ennis.

Significantly, Captain PM Moynihan told the court there was “room for doubt” as to whether the letters were typed on the Hassett’s typewriter, although he believed they were.

In conclusion, the trial judge dismissed the charges against John Hassett, stating there was “no evidence” linking him to the letters.

He added there was no evidence either suggesting Jane Hassett’s involvement in connection with the dispatching of the letters and he directed that the jury should return a not-guilty verdict against her.
The judge said the fact that a “dirty trick” had been played on Joshua Dowling would not justify convicting anyone on unproven suspicions. The judge told the court he had known Mr Dowling for 30 years and had never heard any suggestion disputing his “integrity, honour, Christianity and kindness”.

Having retired for a few minutes, the jury returned a not-guilty verdict against Jane Hassett. Art O’Connor applied for the return of the typewriter but the judge said he didn’t know if he had jurisdiction to make an order.

Researching a colourful history

IN recent months, Don Ryan and Joe Queally have been researching the case and have scoured The Clare Champion archives in their efforts to recount what happened during the Tullycrine typewriter court cases. One of the people central to the case, Jane Hassett, is Don Ryan’s mother, while John Hassett is his grandfather.

On a broader note, Joe Queally has found that although Tullycrine is a sparsely populated area, several incidents of historical note have taken place there.
“Tullycrine holds many secrets and has, over the years, been one of the most active townlands in the history of the State,” he commented.

“The famous song penned about its fighting heroes The Hills of Tullycrine can still be heard. It is said that de Valera stood on the hill and addressed his troops from there. There is another tune composed about Tullycrine and is aptly named The Humours of Tullycrine. The history books in time will of course unearth a lot more about the townland,” Joe Queally predicted.

The area was very active in the 1920s and after the threat to the money lenders (1926-1928), Garda Tadhg O’Sullivan was killed in a booby trap bomb in Tullycrine in June 1929. The IRA was very active in the area and refused to give up the fight, long after the troubles were seen to be over.

“There were four active units in the area; Cranny, Coolmeen, Knock and Labasheeda. They were under the command of TJ Ryan from Cranny, who played an active role in the fight for Irish freedom. All his life, TJ refused to accept anything other than a free Ireland and refused to accept a pension from the State,” Mr Queally said adding that much of the information on Tullycrine was passed on by local storytellers, who have since died.

“One must not forget the storytellers who generously passed down the great stories from their times so the children of today will be able to pass them on to their children. Two of those storytellers have gone on to their eternal reward; Mick Quinlivan from Knockalough and Michael McMahon from Coolmeen but their memories and their voices and their stories live on,” Joe Queally concluded.