Crime and Punishment Exhibition

CRiME aND CRiMInALs: ‘DAnGErOUs tEMpTAtIOnS’ In 1874, widow Jane Poverty Beggs pleaded guilty to Men, women and children in Mid and East Antrim were suspected of a variety of offences ranging from begging to murder. In County Antrim, and across the island of Ireland, drunken misbehaviour was the most frequent charge, followed by common assault. Annual crime statistics for County Antrim were high when they included cases committed in Belfast. Otherwise the area was not typically more criminal than other parts of Ireland. While some laws were the same across the British and Irish Isles, others were exclusive to Ireland.

Ireland also had a separate police force and prison system.

Protecting Local Industry The linen industry flourished in Ulster with thousands employed in spinning mills and textile production across Ireland in the mid to late 19th century.

The processes and practices involved in this industry offered opportunities for misbehaviour. Theft of linen from bleaching greens and weavers selling their completed products elsewhere, rather than to the manufacturer who supplied the yarn, were quite common. Authorities were keen to harshly punish such crimes to deter offenders and prevent damage to local industry.

Poverty was seen to motivate some crimes. Low wages, limited employment options, and inconsistent and unstable work caused poverty in the pre-welfare state period.

Courts tried to distinguish between those who were ‘deserving’ of sympathy because they were perceived as generally honest or had committed a crime as a survival strategy, and those who were ‘undeserving’ and required harsher punishment.

While Mid and East Antrim was less affected than other areas by the Great Famine in the 1840s, many residents experienced severe poverty, and pressure on workhouses increased.

breaking into a shop in Cullybackey and stealing seven loaves, baked bread and a sheet to make clothes for her children. She received a relatively light sentence of one month’s imprisonment because she had to look after her young family.

In March 1850, Edward Conor was sentenced to seven years’ transportation for stealing cloth from a bleach green near Carrickfergus.

Alcohol

Drunk and disorderly behaviour was usually punished with a fine or a stay in prison of a few hours or days depending on the seriousness of the offence.

Women’s drinking was generally frowned upon. Witnesses in domestic abuse cases against wives were regularly asked to comment on whether the victim was ever drunk. A woman’s drinking seemed to suggest she was partly to blame.

Drunkenness, disorderly conduct and drunken brawls were common on fair days, after people had been drinking and socialising for many hours. In 1858 at Tullymore Fair Day, William Eccles and Henry McLaughlin were charged with fighting.

Fair Day at the Fair Hill, Ballymena, Mid-Antrim Museum Collection.

“Ballymena people ‘are rather a moral race (though the number of public houses, there being 107, would lead one to suppose otherwise). They are indeed rather fond of whiskey and too many indulge in it. On Saturday evenings the number of drunkards in the streets is disgraceful, but they are mostly from the country.’ James Boyle, Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, 1835.

Alcohol Bottles, Mid-Antrim Museum Collection.

E. O. Somerville and Martin Ross, Some experiences of an Irish RM (London, 1901), Special Collections, Queen’s University Belfast.

With a bed and a robust diet of potatoes, oats and milk, some preferred prisons to the local workhouses.

Those in need in Carrickfergus and Larne would have gone to Larne Workhouse (now Moyle Hospital).

Society at the time shamed many women who became pregnant outside marriage.

Unmarried mothers could experience discrimination by society and rejection by their families and friends. They could find it difficult to secure work, accommodation or marry. Paternity could not be proven so fathers could avoid paying child support.

Children born of unmarried parents could also face this stigma even into adulthood.

Gerald Griffin, Tales of the Jury Room (Dublin, 1891), Special Collections, Queen’s University Belfast.

John O’Neill took bold action in 1896 when he took a train from Belfast to burgle a shop in Eden and Whitehead.

When arrested he admitted: ‘I thought as there was no police station there I might go safely.’ He sought to bribe the policeman to ensure that his name was not printed in the newspapers.

Reputation mattered and John was aware that his actions could result in loss of his job and accommodation and damage to his family’s standing.

Such attitudes fuelled crimes like abortion, abandonment and infanticide. Between 1850 and 1900, 29 women were found guilty of infant murder in Ireland. That 13 were convicted in Ulster suggests less sympathetic jurors and harsher moral codes than elsewhere in Ireland.

In 1895 Elizabeth Hunter from Ballygally found herself pregnant and her fiancé broke his promise to marry her. She was awarded £500 after suing him for breach of promise to marry. Courts did not want to appear to encourage sex outside marriage by financially rewarding women who became pregnant. But there was some sympathy with women in this position from ‘respectable’ families who had access to legal and financial resources to pursue a case.

"SKETCHES IN COURT." Illustrated Police News, 6th Mar. 1869.

British Library Newspapers.

Facing Trial

Convictions for concealing the birth of a new-born baby found dead were significantly more common than infant murder. Concealment of birth carried a maximum sentence of two years in prison with hard labour.

Alcohol was blamed for many crimes, including street brawls, domestic abuse, road accidents, sectarian provocation, assaults on the police, public disorder, and opportunistic theft.

It was feared that overindulgence by the lower classes would lead to idleness and the breakdown of wider society.

British and Irish fiction writers, playwrights and poets incorporated into their works various aspects of crime and punishment to titillate and engage.

Mary Evans Picture Library.

Nancy McCaughey and her mother Margaret were charged with concealment of birth in Ballymena in 1892 when they secretly buried Nancy’s deceased new-born. Nancy was sentenced to five months in prison, less than a quarter of the maximum, and Margaret was released without charge, indicating sympathy towards them.

Robert John Welch (1859-1936), Bleach Green, Cullybackey, Co. Antrim, National Museums Northern Ireland, BELUM.Y.W.01.39.2.

Crime was the stuff of entertainment before the era of cinema and television. Court trials were typically open to the public. Local cases or those that were particularly intriguing or salacious could attract large audiences. Vivid newspaper reports also brought stories of crimes and the courtroom to a wider audience.

Courtroom Drama, Illustrated London News 1853,

Attitudes towards illegitimacy

Belfast was dubbed ‘Linenopolis’ and Ulster earned an international reputation for linen production. Bleachers received brown linen from weavers and bleached it in the sun using a combination of chemicals.

Crime as entertainment

Lizzie Barr, prisoner number B 241, National Archives Ireland, GPB/PEN/1896/132.

In 1894, Lizzie Barr was charged with stabbing twenty-four-year-old Adam Maxwell in a part of Larne known for its shebeens and brothels. Lizzie chastised Adam for being in a brothel rather than at home with his wife and a physical fight broke out between them. The trial attracted much interest, likely because it involved violence by a woman against a man, sex workers and a brothel, and local suspects. Many who wanted to attend the trial were left disappointed when the courthouse was full. Lizzie was sentenced to three years in the convict prison, Grangegorman in Dublin.

Grangegorman, opened in 1836, was the first female only prison in the British and Irish Isles. Many of those sentenced to transportation would have been imprisoned here while they awaited the arrival of the ship to take them to Australia or Van Diemen’s Land. Grangegorman, Dublin, Andrew Bonar Law, Dublin.

Prisons

PReVEnTInG cRImE: tHE ‘rIGoROuS pENaLTiES’

“kind and conciliatory treatment [is all very well, but] a prison is a place of punishment and degradation in the first instance” Inspector General’s report, 1825

Attempts were made to improve morality and decrease criminality through different punishments for misbehaviour.

These included fines, imprisonment, transportation or execution.

Prisons like Carrickfergus Gaol were holding areas for those awaiting trial or execution, those who could not pay their fines, or those who had been sentenced.

Suspects were accused of offences ranging from drunkenness to murder. Gaols also housed debtors, the homeless and those labelled as ‘lunatics’. They were often filthy and overcrowded, with corrupt staff.

The age, gender and behaviour of the suspect and the crime they committed influenced their punishment.

It was thought that child offenders needed to be punished to prevent their turning to a life of crime and to make them industrious and honest members of society.

‘The Three Sisters’ were located outside the town and were large enough to allow for several persons to be hanged at the same time. Joseph William Carey (1859-1937), The ancient gallows called ‘The Three Sisters’ Carrickfergus, NMNI, BELUM.P21.1974.

Execution Executions were relatively uncommon in Ireland. Between 1852 and 1914 eight executions took place in County Antrim.

Public executions attempted to discourage further serious crimes.

Executions were increasingly viewed with distaste as the 19th century progressed. Clergymen regularly advised parishioners not to attend. A journalist described the upcoming execution of two women at Carrickfergus in 1841 as ‘a barbarous exhibition’.

Items displayed outside shop fronts were easy targets for thieves.

Robert French, Main St. Larne, c 1902, National Library Ireland L_ROY_03104

Fines Fines were common for petty offences and were sometimes offered as alternatives to prison. Those who could not afford to pay were put behind bars.

In January 1874, Mary Ann Hanna of Crumkill sold spirts without a licence to five women. The presiding magistrate at her trial chastised her for “demoralizing these women and affording them facilities for wasting their husbands’ property.”

He fined her 15 shillings and costs, or a fortnight in prison.

After 1868, executions in Ireland took place behind prison walls. A black flag would fly at the prison and a bell would toll to signal that an execution had taken place.

The bodies of those executed for murder were buried in the gaol while families or friends could claim the bodies of those executed for other crimes.

Transportation Men, women and children were sometimes banished for criminal convictions.

The 19th century saw the regular use of transportation from Britain and Ireland to Australia. Authorities in Australia initially wanted people to populate and work its vast lands. Officials in Britain and Ireland were also keen on transportation because convicts would be someone else’s problem if they reoffended. Costs and distances meant that there was little chance that convicts would return from Australia.

The Queen, the first convict ship to transport Irish convicts to New South Wales, set sail from Cork in April 1791. On board were 133 males, including 32year-old Thomas Mullen, convicted of rape at Carrickfergus. Also on board were 22 female convicts, four with young children.

Merchant traders and drapers were targets for theft. Morrow’s draper shop, Bridge Street, Ballymena, Mid-Antrim Museum Collection

In 1858, Alexander Montgomery, a boy of around twelve years old, was arrested for theft in Ballymena. He was charged with having stolen a suit of boy’s clothes, a quantity of yarn, and various other articles - and appeared in court wearing the clothing he had stolen! The newspaper records: ‘Any attempt to strip him of the stolen clothes would have left him in a state of complete nudity; and, as a matter of necessity, he was committed with all the ill-gotten gear on his wretched carcass.’ He was sentenced to 3 months in prison.

Artist's Impression.

Seven convicts died on the journey of 165 days and at least 38 others died in the year after.

A naval officer described that on arrival ‘many of them were Skeletons, apparently with a human skin drawn over the bones, no particular disease, but dying for want of sustenance’.

In 1823, matron Isabella McCartney was fired from her position in Carrickfergus Gaol because she and her assistant Elizabeth Hasley had brought alcohol into the prison and were caught drinking with inmates.

In the 19th century, concerns were expressed that men, women and children were encountering bad influences behind bars and were leaving prison more criminalised than when they had entered.

It was also feared that wily criminal bosses were committing petty offences to get access to potential recruits in prison.

British and Irish reformers like Mary Carpenter, Jeremiah Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Fry and John Howard sought to bring about changes.

Criminality was often blamed on ignorance. Reformers hoped that through schooling in prison (reading, writing and arithmetic) and religious instruction criminals would come to see the folly of their ways and would not have to rely on crime for survival after release.

Prison entrance at the former Ballymena Workhouse, now the Braid Valley Hospital. The workhouse had holding cells for unruly inmates. Mid-Antrim Museum Collection

In 1819, Rev. Dr George Lambert appealed to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for £50 to continue teaching prisoners in Carrickfergus Gaol. He included samples of their handwriting to demonstrate their learning.

When transportation as a punishment ended in the 1850s, a convict prison system was established for serious offenders. These institutions promoted discipline, order and routine.

Despite harsh conditions in prison and separation from family and friends, guaranteed food and shelter and access to medical staff appealed to some and may have motivated criminality.

From the 1820s, prisons in Australia were already becoming overcrowded and prison hulks, decommissioned war or merchant ships, were used to accommodate additional prisoners. Success was one such example. An Indian merchant ship built in 1840, it was adapted as prison ship in 1852, docked on the Yarra River, Melbourne, and operated for 36 years. In 1890, Success was converted into a floating museum, and remained as such until it was destroyed by fire in 1946.

In total, more than 40,000 men, women and children were transported from Ireland to Van Diemen’s Land, New South Wales and Western Australia. Thousands of other Irish-born convicts were transported from Britain.

The fifth HMS Gibraltar was a former Duncan-class ship commissioned for use in Belfast Lough by the Belfast Training Committee. The ship was in service with the Royal Navy from 1863-1867, and became home to Protestant boys from 1871. On board, young boys were educated and trained to be sailors. Life on board the ‘Gibraltar’ navy training ship, Getty Images.

A Distant Sentence

Carrickfergus Courthouse and Gaol Within the Prison Walls

Carrickfergus’ position as the county town of Antrim meant that it was also the site of the county gaol. The County of Antrim Courthouse and Gaol moved to newly constructed buildings on Antrim Street in 1779. However, it wasn’t long before the accommodation in the gaol was considered inadequate. A new County of Antrim Courthouse and Gaol opened on the Crumlin Road in Belfast in 1846, and Carrickfergus Gaol finally closed its doors four years later.

Aer a sentence of transportation, those convicted in Carrickfergus were unlikely to ever return to their home towns.

This building includes a quadrangle area…Its external appearance is perfectly “plain.

The street in which its stands is an obscure narrow lane of which it forms one side [Antrim Street]. In this, however, the town does not sustain any loss, as its sombre front of blackish stone, varied only by the usual melancholy appendage of a drop [gallows], presents an aspect gloomy and uninteresting in the extreme

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OS Memoirs, 1844.

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Redrawn from original plan of gaol held by PRONI, LA/1/8/JA/115/1.

The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus from the Earlies Records till 1839.

Initially, the gaol contained 50 cells, each with two beds, and an infirmary and chapel were later added. While this meant that 100 prisoners could be held at one time, overcrowding meant there was often three to a bed, holding a total of 300 prisoners. By 1825 a further 12 cells had been added to increase capacity.

Between 1779 and 1846, thousands of people were tried in the courthouse from across County Antrim. This included petty sessions as well as the Quarterly Assizes. Of the 880 people tried at the courthouse in 1839, 666 were found guilty and two thirds were sentenced to imprisonment.

Carrickfergus Gaol housed those who had been sentenced, both criminals and debtors, as well as those awaiting trial, and those condemned to execution.

The new County Antrim Courthouse and Gaol was built on the site of Sir Arthur Chichester’s former mansion, Joymount house. This view of the courthouse shows the last remaining round tower from the 17th century gatehouse and remains today. Exterior of the rear of the County of Antrim Courthouse c.1900, PRONI, T1129/465.

While men and women had separate wards, gaol inspectors repeatedly complained about the mixing of female debtors and felons and their sharing of beds.

It was thought that felons and minor offenders would corrupt those women who had been sentenced as debtors.

They are shown depicting various aspects of gaol life.

“The school keeps the prisoners employed and prevents them from plotting mischief ”, Inspector-General’s Report, 1818

Due to the lack of space at Carrickfergus Gaol, those convicted were often sent to the Belfast House of Correction on the corner of Howard Street and Great Victoria Street.

During the first decades of the 19th century, Carrickfergus Gaol experienced the effects of social reform. Education classes for males were established by 1818.

Schooling for females was arranged shortly after. From 1837, boys had their own teacher, while girls continued to be taught alongside women.

T1129/507

While it is not clear where children were housed, there was a separate exercise yard for juveniles and they attended educational classes.

W. A. Green (1870-1958), In Carrickfergus Gaol, National Museums Northern Ireland, HOYFM.WAG.3852.

Prison life was austere. Clothing was only offered to those who desperately needed it. While material was provided, prisoners had to make their own clothing and bedclothes. The prison diet was extremely limited, and prisoners were expected to cook their own meals in the cooking room.

Prisoners were allocated 1 pint of salt a week to add some flavour to the endless diet of potatoes. At about 70g per day this is over ten times the daily recommendation for adults today.

“We were too lazy to wash potatoes for our dinner and so were fed on bread and sweet milk” David Strahan who served 3 days in Carrickfergus Gaol in the late 1840s for ‘letting on’ water (a misdemeanour relating to stealing water).

All images from Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) are reproduced with the permission of the Deputy Keeper of the records

Nancy Edwards was only 16 when she was sentenced to 10 years’ transportation to Van Diemen’s Land for stealing a silver plate.

these women recorded on their arrival in Van Diemen’s Land.

Male debtors were placed in the central portion of the gaol, with female debtors and felons in the north wing and male felons in the southern wing.

Despite deficiencies and overcrowding in the gaol, from 1818 until the gaol’s closure, staff were consistently praised by the inspectors for maintaining a clean and orderly space, aided by the prisoners. Exterior of Carrickfergus Gaol, c.1900, PRONI,

Exterior of Carrickfergus Gaol, c.1900, PRONI, T1129/511A.

In 1841, Mary Moody was sentenced to transportation for life for poisoning her uncle, Alexander Boyle. A newspaper journalist at her trial noted that the 19 year old did not show any emotion upon hearing the verdict.

Like Eliza, sentenced at the same session, the original punishment of execution was reduced to transportation. Mary married Charles Roberts, a district constable in Van Diemen’s Land in August 1843.

The illustrations above are based on physical descriptions of

Exterior of Carrickfergus Gaol, c.1900, PRONI, T1129/499.

The Governor’s House, Carrickfergus Gaol. The condemned cell was also located here. Hangings in Carrickfergus were treated as a public spectacle. However, this ended in 1844 following an outcry at the execution of the 18 year-old soldier John Cordery. He was sentenced for shooting his sergeant. Following this, executions took place in the gaol’s courtyard, with no spectators.

Eliza McIlveen’s case is an example of a sentence being reduced from execution to transportation for life.

She was convicted of murdering Catherine Cairns in 1841. Sent to Van Diemen’s Land, she was granted a conditional pardon in 1850.

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This was the original County of Antrim Courthouse and Gaol located in Market Place. When the new courthouse was built, this building became the town courthouse and gaol. However, even then, it was in such poor repair that convicted prisoners were taken to the new site on Antrim Street. Courthouse and Jail of Carrickfergus, Samuel McSkimin,

Bess Ward was sentenced to transportation for 7 years for the theft of blankets. She sailed to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) on the ship the Waverley on 4th September 1842, five months after her trial.

PRONI, T1179/495

Inmates were also expected to work. At Carrickfergus Gaol this included the maintenance and cleanliness of the gaol by all. Female prisoners were tasked with needlework, spinning and quilting, and male inmates were involved in picking oakum, breaking stones and shoemaking.

To ensure they were not destitute, prisoners were given a third of their overall earnings upon release.

Following the closure of the Carrickfergus Gaol in 1850, the site was used by the Antrim Artillery as headquarters, ordnance store and barracks. In 1935, it opened as the new Town Hall, housing petty sessions courts until 1986. Carrickfergus Museum collection.