Court-Martials and Executions The court-martial of seventy five prisoners in Killala and forty in Ballina opened the day after the massacre at Killala. Bishop Stock, in his narrative tells us: "The court-martials took place in the house of Owen Morrison, a Protestant merchant. Their proceedings at first appeared extremely slow considering the multitudes. They had to try seventy five at Killala and one hundred and ten at Ballina besides those that might be brought in daily. "The first two tried at this tribunal were General Belew and Colonel Richard Bourke. The trial of these two criminals was short, they were found guilty on Monday evening and hanged the next morning in the park behind the Castle, they fell without exciting a sentiment of compassion". The bishop also states in his narrative, "the week that followed the battle was employed in court-martials in the morning and in most, crowded dinners at the Castle in the evening. A whole bullock went in two days, as the bishop had not less that forty people to feed". There seem to be no records of the number of people executed, if there was, they were concealed and probably destroyed later, but we can assume from the bishop's statements above, that the number was quite large. A document in the English State Paper office tells how Denis Mutell and Edward Carrol were sentenced to death. one "for making leaden bullets for the French and rebels" the other "for fighting against His Majesty's forces at Colooney and Killala". Another official record states that at the same time Thomas Carroll, fisherman, found guilty of joining the French and carrying arms at Killala and Daniel Scanlon, a deserter from the Longford militia, were both executed on a tree at Green Park. Dr Patrick Barrett, father of Colonel Patrick Barrett was a native of Erris in Mayo, he studied medicine in Edinburgh where he qualified as a doctor. He returned home and settled in Ballina, in a two storey house opposite the present Bartra House Hotel in Lower Pearse Street where he built up and extensive practise. He was not involved in the military side of the insurrection, although he persuaded his son Patrick, an officer in the local yeomanry to join the Franco-Irish army. He continued to practise openly for a few months after the insurrection and was finally arrested and brought to Castlebar to be court-martialled. The charges against him were that he gave advice to French officers, signed a passport in the name of his son and that he was making bullets for use against the English forces. It is believed that Colonel King, the local military leader who also lived in Pearse Street and Neligan, the parson, falsified the evidence against Dr Barrett. Tradition alleges that they paid a tinsmith of ill-repute named Maxwell, from Ardnaree, to swear at the trial that he was employed by the doctor to run bullets for the rebels. Dr Barrett was found guilty on this unacceptable evidence, that no fair-minded court or tribunal could possibly entertain. He was returned to Ballina to be executed the following day. The doctor got a message to a close friend of his, Jack O'Dowd, a merchant in the town, and expressed the wish that O'Dowd's own hands would take his body down from the tree and that it would be buried in consecrated ground. Next day he was taken across the river to the Fairgreen in Arnaree, where the Ridgepool complex is now situated. The scaffold was ready. Two priests stood to one side reciting prayers. The rope was placed around his neck, and in a few minutes his lifeless body was dangling at the end of it. O'Dowd took down the body and had him buried at the old Abbey in Ardnaree. Another Ballina doctor, Thomas O'Brien was executed at Castlebar at the same time as Dr Barrett. The charge against him was one of 'accepting a military commission from the French and acting as surgeon for the rebels and French whilst at Castlebar'. The rebels' spirit was not completely broken after the carnage at Killala. A namesake and relation of Ferdinand O'Donnell had gathered a body of men around him, and adopting guerrilla type tactics made nightly raids on Trench's encampment around Killala causing casualties, and seizing sentries and horses, they then faded back into the night from whence they had come. Trench sent companies of soldiers into the Laggan area and Erris to apprehend them, but when they were seen coming, O'Donnell's men retreated to selected hiding places and the only achievement the soldiers could accomplish was the burning of cabins. In the village of Knockaun beside Downpatrick Head there is a big circular hole, one hundred feet deep, it is connected to the ocean by a tunnel. The water below rises and falls with the tide. It is called Pollnashanthana, and at the bottom there is a ledge of rock bare when the tide is out. The men of Knocaun and Killeen were working in the cornfields which were neglected during their absence with Humbert's forces. In the middle of their work a messenger arrived with the news that he had spotted a column of English soldiers from a high hill in vicinity approaching at a distance. They had no time to get to the mountains and probably they would be seen moving in that direction. They made a quick decision, they would descent to the bottom of Pollnashanthana. They brought a coil of rope and enlisted the help of an active young woman. One end of the rope was tied to a tree, the other end was dropped down to the bottom of the chasm. Thirty men slid down the rope and reached the ledge below. The woman was to haul up the rope, untie it, and take it to a hiding place. The soldiers burned some cabins and started discharging their muskets. This frightened the young woman who fled under cover to the nearby hills and went into hiding. The soldiers stayed in the area for many hours and after they left it took the woman a long time to leave her hiding place and come back to the village, where she met a local man, who was away when the soldiers arrived, she told her neighbour what had happened. In the meantime the tide has risen and engulfed the men on the ledge below. When the man and woman collected the rope, tied it, went to the edge and looked down, they saw the bodies floating far below. Chelsea,Ma.-Woburn,Ma.-denning-dennen-danin-dinan-dinihey-denningston-dinning- carlon-carroll-dever-cogan-malone-piscopo-mazzola-martini-farrell-mchugh-farle y-grimes-lynch-doherty-SanDanto,Ita-Adargh,longford-Revere,Ma-Wintrop,Ma.-spra gue- and ever growing list Jim Denning