PORTGLENONE MURDER 1832 - a quiet man who deserves to be remembered.

 

A report of a murder near Portglenone appeared in the pages of the Northern Whig newspaper dated 11 June 1832:

'On Monday the fourth inst. Arthur Henry, a respectable, inoffensive man (a Catholic) of the parish of Tamlaght O'Crilly, was on his way home from Bellaghey fair, waylaid and so inhumanly beaten and abused between Bellaghey and Portglenone that he expired Wednesday last. He has left behind him a wife and seven children. He was a very quiet man, and was never implicated in any party measures'.

It seems there had been an upsurge in party violence in the Portglenone area in previous months. A stipendiary magistrate had arrived in the town on the 8th June to 'deal out justice and teach a wholesome lesson to the disturbers of public peace'.

In memory of a quiet man - Arthur Henry.

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