John the Martyr...Tommy Dahill

John Dahill was hanged in June 1798 for "Administering Oaths", inducting people into the United Irishmen. Thomas McGrath, a yeoman who he inducted, turned state's evidence against him (for the going rate of 10 pounds). He was hanged in Curaglas along with Nicholas Burke and Patrick Fitzgerald. The magistrate let his body hang for a week, but he (the magistrate) was haunted something fierce by a ghost, so he took his own COI minister's advice and buried him properly, in a COI Cemetery in rathcormack, with a marked headstone (rare for a Catholic!). Also buried in the same grave is his father, Garrett, who died from grief three weeks later, and my father, whom I buried there on 24 july 2007. John was my father's great great great grandfather.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• United
• Irishmen
• 1798
• delta
• blues