Scathlan 1

was summonsed, a speech delivered to 'fewer than forty people, chiefly Cow-boys', at Magheraclogher (19 December, 1888), was banal enough. However summonsed he was, under the Coercion Act. The bishop urged him to obey, but always independent he decided, as indeed others similarly.summonsed had done, not to. He regarded himself as the law in Gweedore, and the law administered by the District Courts he had set up was the only law acknowledged by his people. D.I. Martin for his part showed an incredibly reckless disregard for prudence, and this recklessness was to cost the poor fellow his life. The day he chose to serve the warrant for arrest was Sunday; more rashly still, the occasion he selected was after Mass. He could say that Canon McFadden, by eluding the grasp of the law (as he had done) had driven him to this course; but two other district inspectors, Markham and Stevenson, had deemed it discreet to avoid confrontation at such a time. But William Limrick Martin was possessed of a self-confidence which matched Fr. McFcidden's own. In his early forties he stood six feet tall, was powerful and energetic, and imperiously self-willed he reeked not of danger. On that wintry and fatal Sunday Fr. McFadden concluded the ceremony with a homily, his customary exhortation to the people to keep the peace in every way. The prosecution later tried to make the case that after Mass, and within the locked Chapel, he had plotted with a number of his parishioners how they should resist his arrest; but he was not so foolish. That the congregation (smaller than usual because o.f bad weather) anticipated his arrest, and that they hung about after Mass, are of course facts. That he went from the Chapel, prepared if necessary to yield himself to the waiting officer, seems clear too. Martin was ready to arrest the priest on the rising ground between Chapel and house. A pathway and steps connected the churchyard and the parochial house above. Along this passageway Martin had stationed a small force of two sergeants and two constables; the main ·force of 'eighty policemen under arms a few perches away', under County Inspector Lennon, were stationed at the schoolhouse (present Derrybeg post office). As the priest advanced smartly towards his house, he was accosted by the D.I., an officer unknown to him. The inspector's method of arrest was highhanded and rude, and Fr, McFadden demanded to see his warrant. Obviously out of temper, Martin - he had already that morning been on a wild goose chase to Dunlewey and on his return had engaged in an altercation with the congregation - paid little attention to this reasonable request. He handled the priest roughly, and in the end yielded ungraciously to the request. There was afterwards a suspicion that the paper exhibited to Fr. McFadden was not the warrant. The priest however pronounced himself satisfied . But already the harm had been done; the crowd had been spectators of the uncivil treatment. In fact, as if by malignant design and as on a stage raised before them, there was presented to the watchful congregation what must have seemed a visible reminder of penal times. There was the priest, fresh from the altar, seized so roughly as to tear his collar by an irate officer of a law which had inflicted so much injury on them. Furthermore, that of– ficer's sword was raised as if to cut down their priest. 49.