3-028-148 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches from Ireland: cross at Kilskeer, to commemorate the murder of Connell, 1870. 'On the road from Kells to Killallon, where the farm of Mr. Crawford is situated, just before entering the village of Kilskeer, one passes by the way side a plain stone cross, erected oil a somewhat lofty pedestal, having a white marble tablet on its face containing the following inscription: "Of your charity, pray for the soul of Richard Connell, who died Nov. 7, 1857. May he rest in peace! Amen." The peasant women, as they pass the spot, invariably ejaculate a short prayer or bow their heads and cross themselves. Connell, it appears, was murdered here by a band of Ribbonmen, with blackened faces, who pulled him off his jaunting-car, one Sunday afternoon, on his way home from attending mass at the chapel on the neighbouring hill, and savagely beat him with bludgeons until he died, in presence of his neighbours and two of his relatives. Crawford's farm is about three miles distant from this spot, towards the borders of Westmeath'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.