November 22nd, 1847: Lord Clarendon shuts himself up in the Viceregal Lodge after the Mahon murder. He renews his calls to the Prime Minister for a Special Powers Act.
Russell, who still hopes to integrate Catholic Ireland into the Union, replies: "It is quite true that landlords in England would not be shot like hares and partridges. But neither does any landlord in England turn out 50 persons at once, and burn their houses over their heads, giving them no provision for the future. The murders are atrocious, so are the ejectments."
But the Prime Minister encourages Lord Shrewsbury, an English Catholic peer, to comment publicly on the crisis. Shrewsbury, while accepting the allegations against Father McDermott, contends (in a letter written by his eccentric chaplain to the Morning Chronicle) that the British public sees the church as "an accessory to crime"; responsibility for the Famine deaths, which MacHale and many Irish clerics blame on government incompetence, should be imputed to the "unerring, though inscrutable, designs of God"; the Irish are to blame, too, "for God's visitation was grievously aggravated by their ingratitude [towards] . . . England".
From Kinsale, Daniel Murphy, vicar forane to the bishop of Cork, sums up the feelings of the Irish Catholic clergy: "The unhappy Shrewsbury has done us all great harm and it is quite clear that he is playing the game of the government for our enslavement and that his letter will be submitted, if it has not already been done, to the Holy See as a proof of our rebellious propensities and the necessity of government control over the Irish priesthood."
"I know not what the English mean to do with us," remarks Prof James Cooke, of St John's College, Waterford. "The papers and parliamentary speeches last year held up the landlords to the nation's contempt and execration. This last session they have turned on the priests with the most unaccountable fury; now they attack priests and people together."
All occupants of the townland of Doorty, where Maj Mahon was shot, have been evicted. Three murder suspects - including James Hasty, a shebeen-keeper - are in the Strokestown Bridewell. Informers emerge from an adjoining townland.
The tenants of Cornashina come twice before the agents Guinness and Mahon, promising to make up their arrears and begging to be left on their holdings. They are persuaded to give evidence when told: "Prosecute to conviction the murderer of Maj Mahon and you shall have your farms."
Hasty is hanged in Roscommon before a crowd of 4,000, confessing his guilt and denouncing "that accursed system of Molly Maguirism".
A second man is executed and others are transported. Father McDermott's name does not feature at the trial. Clarendon tries in vain to get evidence of his involvement.