JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY aged 21 years, and is interred at Garton. No further attempts were made to extract information from the prisoner, and shortly ~fterwards he was transferred to Lifford .Jail. The 1change 1brought little improvement in conditions. The food was bad and lba~ely • sufficient to keep body and soul together. The prisoners were permitted a quarter of an hour exercise in the yard each day and their hunger used to 'be so great that they pulled a.ncl greedily devoured any weeds or blades of grass they could :ft.nd growing at the 1base of the wall. The "Trial" and Sequel Captain O'Donnell was eventually 'brought to trial before a military tribunal, under the presidency of a Captain Murray. It is asserted by some that McGrath, the informer, absconded and failed to put in an appearance at the court. My information is that he was the .principal Crown witness, but, instead.of pressing the charge against his neighbour, he did his best to lback out of the statement he had p~e'V'iously made. WlhlaJte.ver occurred, the case fell through owing to lack of evidence and was the cause of much embarrassment to the authorities, who were most anxious to get rid of Manus. It fell to the President to ftnd what appeared to be a satisfactory solution to the problem. The ·accused's fame as a pdkeman was not un- ~nown to him and he accordingly informed the prisoner that he would ·be given an opportunity of proving his ab111ty in this respect. He oftered him his liberty if he would undertake to fight a mounted dragoon armed only with his pike! The practice of matching a pikeman against a soldier on horse_ back does not appear to have been unoommon at the period. Richard Hayes ln his "The Last Invasion of Ireland" recounts a similar 1n199 stance a.fter the Battle of· Ballina· muck when one ot the :fleeing rebels was caiptured and forced to Itl1ght a cavalryman. I have also heard of another case from Connaught. The Day a·f the Fight Manus, of course, had no alternative but to accept the challenge. <He was restricted to defensive measures only,· while the dragoon nad orders to kill him. The venue selected for the great event was a large :flat ~eld at .the oonlfliu1ence of the rivers Mourne and Finn, about mid-way !between Lifford and. Strabane. News of the coming combat spread like wildfire and aroused enthusiasm everywhere. Crowds converged on Lifford on the appointed day The Planter stock of the Lagan were there with their wives. The nllagers .turned out and brakes were provided as grandstands for the officers and gaily dressed ladies and gentlemen of "the gentry" for miles around. The Red-coats, 'both horse and foot, looking very smart in their bright uniforms, were present in force. But Manus's supporters were not lacking. They came in their hundreds trom .fihe hills and the glens. They came on foot a,nd by any means of conveyance they could procure. Many walked from moon-up the night before, bringing with them some oaten cake and a few roast potatoes to sustain them on their journey. Large numbers came out from the !Rosses and even from the islands off the coast. This is interesting in view of Captain Q'Donnell's reputed failure to found a branch of the United Irtshmen in those parts and also of the, reluctance of t.ht: Rosses-men to rally to the aid of Napper Tandy when he arrived with the French otr Burtonport en the 16th September, 1798. Tradition affords the most probable explanation by asserting ·caitrlona's ·relationship with the Inls Same
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