Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in eastern England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north, it borders Northamptonshire in the south for just 20 yards, England's shortest county boundary. The county town is the city of Lincoln; the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire and the area covered by the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. Part of the ceremonial county is in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, most is in the East Midlands region; the county is the second-largest of the English ceremonial counties and one, predominantly agricultural in land use. The county is fourth-largest of the two-tier counties, as the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire are not included.
The county has several geographical sub-regions, including the rolling chalk hills of the Lincolnshire Wolds. In the southeast are the Lincolnshire Fens, the Carrs, the industrial Humber Estuary and North Sea coast around Grimsby and Scunthorpe, in the southwest of the county, the Kesteven Uplands, comprising rolling limestone hills in the district of South Kesteven. During the Pre-Roman times most of Lincolnshire was inhabited by the Brythonic Corieltauvi people; the Iceni covered the area around modern day Grimsby. The language of the area at that time would have been the precursor to modern Welsh; the name Lincoln derives from the old Welsh ‘Lindo’ meaning Lake. Modern-day Lincolnshire is derived from the merging of the territory of the Brythonic Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough of Stamford. For some time the entire county was called "Lindsey", it is recorded as such in the 11th-century Domesday Book; the name Lindsey was applied to the northern core, around Lincoln.
This emerged as one of the three Parts of Lincolnshire, along with the Parts of Holland in the south east, the Parts of Kesteven in the south west, which each had separate Quarter Sessions as their county administrations. In 1888 when county councils were set up, Lindsey and Kesteven each received separate ones; these survived until 1974, when Holland and most of Lindsey were unified into Lincolnshire. The northern part of Lindsey, including Scunthorpe Municipal Borough and Grimsby County Borough, was incorporated into the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Humberside, along with most of the East Riding of Yorkshire. A local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside; the land south of the Humber Estuary was allocated to the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. These two areas became part of Lincolnshire for ceremonial purposes, such as the Lord-Lieutenancy, but are not covered by the Lincolnshire police; the remaining districts of Lincolnshire are Boston, East Lindsey, North Kesteven, South Holland, South Kesteven, West Lindsey.
They are part of the East Midlands region. The area was shaken by the 27 February 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake, reaching between 4.7 and 5.3 on the Richter magnitude scale. Lincolnshire is home to Woolsthorpe Manor and home of Sir Isaac Newton, he attended Grantham. Its library has preserved his signature, carved into a window sill. Bedrock in Lincolnshire features Cretaceous chalk. For much of prehistory, Lincolnshire was under tropical seas, most fossils found in the county are marine invertebrates. Marine vertebrates have been found including ichthyosaurus and plesiosaur; the highest point in Lincolnshire is Wolds Top, at Normanby le Wold. Some parts of the Fens may be below sea level; the nearest mountains are in Derbyshire. The biggest rivers in Lincolnshire are the Trent, running northwards from Staffordshire up the western edge of the county to the Humber estuary, the Witham, which begins in Lincolnshire at South Witham and runs for 132 kilometres through the middle of the county emptying into the North Sea at The Wash.
The Humber estuary, on Lincolnshire's northern border, is fed by the River Ouse. The Wash is the mouth of the Welland, the Nene and the Great Ouse. Lincolnshire's geography is varied, but consists of several distinct areas: Lincolnshire Wolds - area of rolling hills in the north east of the county designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The Fens - dominating the south east quarter of the county The Marshes - running along the coast of the county The Lincoln Edge/Cliff - limestone escarpment running north-south along the western half of the countyLincolnshire's most well-known nature reserves include Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, Whisby Nature Park Local Nature Reserve, Donna Nook National Nature Reserve, RSPB Frampton Marsh and the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve. Although the Lincolnshire countryside is intensively farmed, there are many biodiverse wetland areas, as well as rare limewood forests. Much of the county was once wet. From bones, we can tell that animal species found in Lincolnshire include wooly mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, wild horse, wild boar and beaver.
Species which have returned to Lincolnshire after extirpation include little egret, Eurasian spoonbill, European otter and red kite. This is a chart
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London, England at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the prison was extended and rebuilt many times, remained in use for over 700 years, from 1188 to 1902. In the early 12th century, Henry II instituted legal reforms that gave the Crown more control over the administration of justice; as part of his Assize of Clarendon of 1166, he required the construction of prisons, where the accused would stay while royal judges debated their innocence or guilt and subsequent punishment. In 1188, Newgate was the first institution established to meet that purpose. A few decades in 1236, in an effort to enlarge the prison, the king converted one of the Newgate turrets, which still functioned as a main gate into the city, into an extension of the prison; the addition included new dungeons and adjacent buildings, which would remain unaltered for two centuries.
By the 15th century, Newgate was in need of repair. Following pressure from reformers who learned that the women's quarters were too small and did not contain their own latrines – obliging women to walk through the men's quarters to reach one – officials added a separate tower and chamber for female prisoners in 1406; some Londoners bequeathed their estates to repair the prison. The building was collapsing and decaying, many prisoners were dying from the close quarters, rampant disease, bad sanitary conditions. Indeed, one year, 22 prisoners died from "gaol fever"; the situation in Newgate was so dire. The executors of Lord Mayor Dick Whittington were granted a licence to renovate the prison in 1422; the gate and gaol were rebuilt. There was a new central hall for meals, a new chapel, the creation of additional chambers and basement cells with no light or ventilation. There were three main wards: the Master’s side for those could afford to pay for their own food and accommodations, the Common side for those who were too poor, a Press Yard for special prisoners.
The king used Newgate as a holding place for heretics and rebellious subjects brought to London for trial. The prison housed both male and female debtors. Prisoners were separated into wards by gender. By the mid-15th century, Newgate could accommodate 300 prisoners. Though the prisoners lived in separate quarters, they mixed with each other and visitors to the prison; the prison was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, was rebuilt in 1672 by Sir Christopher Wren. His design extended the complex into new buildings on the south side of the street. In 1770, construction was begun to add a new sessions house. Parliament granted £50,000 towards the cost, the City of London provided land measuring 1,600 feet by 50 feet; the work followed the designs of George Dance. The new prison was constructed to an architecture terrible design intended to discourage law-breaking; the building was laid out around a central courtyard, was divided into two sections: a "Common" area for poor prisoners and a "State area" for those able to afford more comfortable accommodation.
Each section was further sub-divided to accommodate debtors. Construction of the second Newgate Prison was finished when it was stormed by a mob during the Gordon riots in June 1780; the building was gutted by fire, the walls were badly damaged. Dance’s new prison was completed in 1782. During the early 19th century the prison attracted the attention of the social reformer Elizabeth Fry, she was concerned at the conditions in which female prisoners were held. After she presented evidence to the House of Commons improvements were made. In 1858, the interior was rebuilt with individual cells; the prison closed in 1902, was demolished in 1904. All manner of criminals stayed at Newgate; some committed acts of petty crime and theft and entering homes or committing highway robberies, while others performed serious crimes such as rapes and murders. The number of prisoners in Newgate for specific types of crime grew and fell, reflecting public anxieties of the time. For example, towards the tail end of Edward I's reign, there was a rise in street robberies.
As such, the punishment for drawing out a dagger was 15 days in Newgate. Upon their arrival in Newgate, prisoners were chained and led to the appropriate dungeon for their crime. Those, sentenced to death stayed in a cellar beneath the keeper’s house an open sewer lined with chains and shackles to encourage submission. Otherwise, common debtors were sent to the "stone hall" whereas common felons were taken to the "stone hold"; the dungeons were so depraved that physicians would not enter. The conditions did not improve with time. Prisoners who could afford to purchase alcohol from the prisoner-run drinking cellar by the main entrance to Newgate remained perpetually drunk. There were lice everywhere, jailers left the prisoners chained to the wall to languish and starve; the legend of the "Black Dog", an emaciated spirit thought to represent the brutal treatment of prisoners, only served to emphasize the harsh conditions. From 1315 to 1316, 62 deaths in Newgate were under investigation by the coroner, prisoners were always desperate to leave the prison.
The cruel treatment from guards did nothing to help the unfortunate prisoners. According to medieval statute, the prison was to be managed by two annually elected sheriffs, who in turn would sublet the admi
Maolra Seoighe
Maolra Seoighe, County Galway, was a Gaeltacht man, convicted and wrongfully hanged on December 15, 1882. He was sentenced to death; the case was heard in the English language. Seoighe was pardoned in 2018. Seoighe was the most prominent figure in a controversial trial in 1882 that took place while Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Three Irish language speakers were condemned to death for the murder of a local family in Maamtrasna, on the border between County Mayo and County Galway, it was presumed by the authorities to be a local feud connected to the Land War. Eight men were convicted on what turned out to be perjured evidence and three of them condemned to death: Seoighe, Pat Casey and Pat Seoighe; the court proceedings were carried out in a language they did not understand, with a solicitor from Trinity College, who did not speak Irish. The three were executed in Galway by William Marwood for the crime in 1882; the role of John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, is the most controversial aspect of the trial, leading most modern scholars to count it as a miscarriage of justice.
To date, the Spencer family and the British government have issued no apology and pardon for the executions. Though the case has been periodically taken up by various political figures. Contemporary to the time, Timothy Harrington, MP for Westmeath, took up the case, claiming that the Crown Prosecutor for the case George Bolton, had deliberately withheld evidence from the trial. In 2011, the two sitting members of the British House of Lords, David Alton and Eric Lubbock from the Liberal Democrats, requested a review of the case. Crispin Blunt, Tory Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Youth Justice, stated that Joyce was "probably an innocent man", but that he would not be seeking an official pardon. On April 4th 2018 Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, issued a pardon on the advice of the current government of Ireland saying “Maolra Seoighe was wrongly convicted of murder and was hanged for a crime that he did not commit.” It is the first presidential pardon relating to an event predating the foundation of the state in 1922 and the second time a pardon has been issued after an execution.
In September 2009, the story featured on RTÉ's CSI programme under an episode entitled CSI Maamtrasna Massacre. A dramatised Irish-language film regarding the affair, entitled Murdair Mhám Trasna, produced by Ciarán Ó Cofaigh was released by in 2017. List of miscarriage of justice cases Guildford Four Birmingham Six Land War Feall Fuilteach - Scéal Mhaolra Seoighe BBC Radio Ulster http://www.gaelport.com/default.aspx?treeid=163&EventItemID=2000 http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/57300/remembering-myles-joyce https://archive.org/stream/maamtrasnamassac00harr/maamtrasnamassac00harr_djvu.txt http://gaeilge2013.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Clár-Ócáid-Mhám-Trasna.pdf http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/21496 http://irishcriminology.com/05b.html http://www.beo.ie/alt-ceacht-staire-ar-chearta-teanga-dunmharuithe-mham.aspx Maamtrasna Murders - Legal Injustice at AnGhaeltacht.net
Horncastle
Horncastle is a market town and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, 17 miles east of the county town of Lincoln. Horncastle had a population of 6,815 at the 2011 Census. Although fortified, Horncastle was not on any important Roman roads, which suggests that the River Bain was the principal route of access. Roman Horncastle has become known as Banovallum – this name has been adopted by several local businesses and by the town's secondary modern school. But, the Roman name for the settlement is not known: Banovallum was suggested in the 19th century through an interpretation of the Ravenna Cosmography, a 7th-century list of Roman towns and road-stations. Banovallum may have been Caistor; the Roman walls remain in places – one section is on display in the town's library, built over the top of the wall. The Saxons called the town Hyrnecastre. Horncastle is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as consisting of 41 households, including 29 villagers and twelve smallholders, had 100 acres of meadow and two mills, all belonging to King William.
Dating from the 13th century prior to the Reformation, the Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary. In the Early English style, it is a Grade II*listed building, it was extensively restored between 1861 by Ewan Christian. Four miles from Horncastle is the village of Winceby. During the 1643 Battle of Winceby – which helped to secure Lincolnshire for Parliament – leader Oliver Cromwell was killed. Local legend has it that the thirteen scythe blades, which hang on the wall of the south chapel of St. Mary's Church, were used as weapons at Winceby; this story is regarded as apocryphal. The accepted historical opinion is that they date from the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536. Both theories about the origin of the scythes are discussed at Lincoln website. Horncastle was granted its market charter by the Crown in the 13th century, it was long known for its great August horse fair, an internationally famous annual trading event which continued to be held until the mid-20th century. It ended after the Second World War, when horses were no longer used for agriculture.
The town is now known as a centre for the antiques trade. The great annual horse fair was first held in the 13th century; the fair used to last for a week or more every August. In the 19th century it was the largest event of its kind in the United Kingdom; the slogan, "Horncastle for horses", was an indication of the town's standing in this trade. George Borrow set some scenes of his semi-autobiographical books Lavengro and The Romany Rye at the annual horse fair; the last horse fair was held in 1948. In 1894 the Stanhope Memorial, designed by E. Lingen Barker, was erected in the centre of the Market Place in memory of Edward Stanhope MP. Built of limestone, red sandstone and pink and grey streaked marble, it is a Grade II listed structure; the Grade II listed Old Court House, built in 1865, is in Louth Road. Since the late 20th century, the population has increased to 6,815 in its highest ever; the civil parish suffered a decline in population from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, as urbanisation and changes in agriculture attracted people to cities where more work was available.
Horncastle is twinned with Bonnétable, a ville de marché in the French département of Sarthe with a population of 4,000. The towns' relationship is commemorated by a Rue Horncastle in Bonnétable, a Bonnetable Road in Horncastle, it lies to the south of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where the River Bain meets the River Waring, north of the West and Wildmore Fens. The south of Horncastle is called Cagthorpe. Langton Hill is to the west, it used to be part of Horncastle Rural District in the Parts of Lindsey, but is now in the district council of East Lindsey, based in Manby, east of Louth. North of the town, the civil parish meets West Ashby and Low Toynton, south of Milestone House on the A153; the boundary skirts the east of the town, crossing Low Toynton Road, following the Viking Way meeting the River Waring. It follows north of the A158, to a caravan park, where it meets High Toynton. Southwards on Mareham Road it meets Mareham on the Hill, east of Stonehill Farm. South of the town, north of Telegraph House, it meets Scrivelsby, following High Lane westwards to cross the B1183, south of Loxley Farm the A153 and skirts the southern edge of the sewage works next to the River Bain where it meets Roughton.
It follows the Old River Bain west of the A153 northwards over the river meadows, crossing the Horncastle Canal. Eastwards it crosses the B1191, south of Langton Hill, it follows. It meets the B1190 where the pylons cross the road the A158 at the B1190 junction following Accommodation Road to the east, it skirts the north of the town following Elmhurst Road, passing south of Elmlea Farm. and straight through Elmhirst Lakes. At the River Bain near Hemingby Lane, it meets West Ashby. Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service is based at the Boston Road Industrial Estate; the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is based in Banovallum House. Mortons of Horncastle is a major national magazine publisher of classic motorcycles and road transport heritage titles, situated in the south of the town on the industrial estate off the A153. An electoral ward of the same name exists; this ward includes Thimbleby and has a total population taken at the 2011 Census
Charles Peace
Charles Frederick Peace was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy. After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Sheffield, where he became obsessed with his neighbour's wife shooting her husband dead. Settling in London, he carried out multiple burglaries before being caught in the prosperous suburb of Blackheath, wounding the policeman who arrested him, he was linked to the Sheffield murder, tried at Leeds Assizes. Found guilty, he was hanged at Armley Prison, his story has inspired many authors and film producers. Charles Peace was born in Darnall, youngest son of a shoemaker John Peace and his wife, a naval surgeon's daughter. At fourteen Charles was permanently crippled in an accident at a steel-rolling mill, embarked on a life of crime. In 1854, he was sentenced to four years' penal servitude. In 1859, he married. Soon afterward, he committed a major burglary in Manchester, nearly killing a police officer who came to arrest him, was sentenced to six years' penal servitude.
Another burglary in Manchester earned him an eight-year sentence. For a while after this, he seems to have concentrated on his picture-framing business, before working on the North Eastern Railway, from which he was sacked for absenteeism. After moving to the Sheffield suburb of Darnall, Peace made the acquaintance of a civil engineer called Dyson, which would prove fateful in due course. At Whalley Range, Peace was seen by two policemen entering the grounds of a house on 1 August 1876, about midnight. One, PC Nicholas Cock, intercepted him. Peace warned Cock to stand back; the policeman came on. Peace fired, but deliberately wide of him. Cock drew his truncheon, Peace fired again, this time wounding Cock, who died on 2 August. In the dark, Peace escaped, two brothers and William Habron, living nearby, were arrested and charged with the killing of Constable Cock. At Manchester Assizes, John Habron was acquitted for lack of evidence, but William Habron was sentenced to death commuted to penal servitude for life.
Peace had made a point of attending the trial, to confirm that he was not a suspect, before returning to Darnall. In the meantime, Peace had developed an obsessive interest in Dyson's wife, though it was never established how far she may have returned his feelings. In June 1876, Dyson threw a card into the garden of Peace's house, reading: "Charles Peace is requested not to interfere with my family."On 1 July, Peace approached Mrs Dyson and threatened to blow out her brains and those of her husband. Dyson took out a summons against Peace, moved to a different suburb, Banner Cross. On their first day in the new house, 29 October, Mrs Dyson was accosted by Peace, who said "You see, I am here to annoy you, I'll annoy you wherever you go."That evening, a little after eight o'clock, Peace observed Mrs Dyson coming out from her back door and entering a nearby outhouse. When she duly emerged, he confronted her with a revolver, shouting "Speak or I'll fire." In terror, she retreated to the outhouse, her husband came out to investigate.
Peace fled down the passage. Peace fired twice at Dyson, the second shot passing fatally through his temple; as Mrs Dyson cried "Murder!", Peace escaped and made his way by train to Hull, where his wife kept an eating-house. There was cry, with a price of £ 100 on his head; the police issued a description, somewhat inaccurate, had to be altered. But in any case, Peace was changing his appearance, concealing his missing finger with an ingenious prosthetic arm, moving around the country to try to avoid detection. In Nottingham, he made another fateful meeting, with a Mrs Sue Thompson, who would become his mistress, but would betray his whereabouts to the police. In early 1877, they moved to London, where Peace felt safer from arrest, sent for his wife and son, Willie, to join him in Peckham. Among his favourite hunting-grounds was the affluent suburb of Blackheath, where a rash of burglaries was noted with alarm, it was here that Peace was caught. On 10 October 1878, at about 2 am, a Constable Robinson saw a light appear in a window at the back of a house in St John's Park.
With two colleagues, he approached the house and they rang the bell. Peace tried to escape through the garden, fired four shots at Robinson, who closed on him and managed to hold him though a fifth shot had passed through his arm. Peace was remanded for a week, but in captivity, he wrote a letter to a business colleague who decided to co-operate with police, revealed its author as Peace, writing under his pseudonym John Ward. Under that name, he was tried at the Old Bailey for burglary and the attempted murder of PC Robinson; the evidence against the prisoner was clear enough, he was sentenced by Mr Justice Hawkins to penal servitude for life. From Pentonville prison, where he was serving his sentence, Peace was taken to Sheffield, where he appeared before the stipendiary magistrate at the Town Hall, charged with the murder of Dyson; as Mrs Dyson's cross-examination was adjourned to the next hearing, Peace was taken back to London to await the second hearing. But it had to be adjourned a further eight days, because on the journey back to Sheffield, Peace had jumped from the train and had been found unconscious beside the track.
Duly declared fit, he appeared for his second examination before the magistrate. H
Punch and Judy
Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy; the performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most Mr. Punch and one other character who falls victim to Punch's slap stick, it is associated with traditional British culture. The various episodes of Punch comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—are dominated by the clowning of Mr. Punch; the show is performed by a single puppeteer inside the booth, known since Victorian times as a "professor" or "punchman", assisted sometimes by a "bottler" who corrals the audience outside the booth, introduces the performance, collects the money. The bottler might play accompanying music or sound effects on a drum or guitar, engage in back chat with the puppets, sometimes repeating lines that may have been difficult for the audience to understand. In Victorian times, the drum and pan pipes were the instruments of choice. Today, the audience is encouraged to participate, calling out to the characters on the stage to warn them of danger or clue them in to what is going on behind their backs.
Nowadays, most professors work solo, since the need for a bottler became less important when busking with the show gave way to paid engagements at private parties or public events. The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte; the figure of Punch is derived from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella, anglicized to Punchinello. He is a manifestation of the Lord of Trickster figures of deep-rooted myths. Punch's wife was called "Joan." The figure who became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England on 9 May 1662, traditionally reckoned as Punch's UK birthday; the diarist Samuel Pepys observed a marionette show featuring an early version of the Punch character in Covent Garden in London. It was performed by a.k.a.. "Signor Bologna." Pepys described the event in his diary as "an Italian puppet play, within the rails there, pretty." In the British Punch and Judy show, Punch wears a brightly coloured jester's motley and sugarloaf hat with a tassel.
He is a hunchback whose hooked nose meets his curved, jutting chin. He carries a stick as large as himself, which he uses upon most of the other characters in the show, he speaks in a distinctive squawking voice, produced by a contrivance known as a swazzle or swatchel which the professor holds in his mouth, transmitting his gleeful cackle. This gives Punch a vocal quality. So important is Punch's signature sound that it is a matter of some controversy within Punch and Judy circles as to whether a "non-swazzled" show can be considered a true Punch and Judy Show. Other characters do not use the swazzle, so the Punchman has to switch back and forth while still holding the device in his mouth. In the early 18th century, the marionette theatre starring Punch was at its height, with showman Martin Powell attracting sizable crowds at both his Punch's Theatre at Covent Garden and earlier in provincial Bath, Somerset. Powell has been credited with being "largely responsible for the form taken by the drama of Punch and Judy".
In 1721, a puppet theatre opened in Dublin. The cross-dressing actress Charlotte Charke ran the successful but short-lived Punch's Theatre in the Old Tennis Court at St. James's, presenting adaptations of Shakespeare as well as plays by herself, her father Colley Cibber, her friend Henry Fielding. Fielding ran his own puppet theatre under the pseudonym Madame de la Nash to avoid the censorship concomitant with the Theatre Licensing Act of 1737. Punch was popular in Paris and, by the end of the 18th century, he was playing in Britain's American colonies, where George Washington bought tickets for a show. However, marionette productions were expensive and cumbersome to mount and transport, presented in empty halls, the back rooms of taverns, or within large tents at England's yearly agricultural events at Bartholomew Fair and Mayfair. In the latter half of the 18th century, marionette companies began to give way to glove-puppet shows, performed from within a narrow, lightweight booth by one puppeteer with an assistant, or "bottler," to gather a crowd and collect money.
These shows might travel through country towns or move from corner to corner along busy London streets, giving many performances in a single day. The character of Punch adapted to the new format, going from a stringed comedian who might say outrageous things to a more aggressive glove-puppet who could do outrageous—and violent—things to the other characters. About this time, Punch's wife's name changed from "Joan" to "Judy." The mobile puppet booth of the late 18th- and early 19th-century Punch and Judy glove-puppet show was covered in checked bed ticking or whatever inexpensive cloth might come to hand. Victorian booths were gaudier affairs those used for Christmas parties and other indoor performances. In the 20th century, red-and-white-striped puppet booths became iconic features on the beaches of many English seaside and summer holiday resorts; such striped cloth is the most common covering today. A more substantial change came over time to the show's target audience; the show was intended for adults, but it changed into a children's entertainment in the late Victorian era.
Ancient members of the show's cast ceased to be included, such as the Devil and Punch's mistress "Pretty Polly," when they came to be seen as inappropriate for young audiences. The story changes, but som
Irish National Invincibles
The Irish National Invincibles known as the Invincibles, were a splinter group of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. This group of assassins were active in Dublin between late 1881 and 1883, with an intent to kill the authorities in Dublin Castle. After numerous attempts on his life, Chief Secretary for Ireland William Edward "Buckshot" Forster resigned in protest of the Kilmainham Treaty; the Invincibles settled on a plan to kill the Permanent Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke at the Irish Office. The newly installed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was walking with Burke on the day of his arrival in Ireland when the assassins struck, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, at 17:30 Saturday, 6 May 1882; the first assassination in the park was committed by Joe Brady, who attacked Burke with a 12-inch knife, followed in short order by Tim Kelly, who knifed Cavendish. Both men used surgical knives; the British press expressed outrage and demanded that the "Phoenix Park Murderers" be brought to justice.
A large number of suspects were arrested. By playing off one suspect against another, Superintendent Mallon of "G" Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police got several of them to reveal what they knew; the Invincibles' leader, James Carey, Michael Kavanagh agreed to testify against the others. Joe Brady, Michael Fagan, Thomas Caffrey, Dan Curley and Tim Kelly were hanged by William Marwood in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin between 14 May and 4 June 1883. Others were sentenced to long prison terms. No member of the founding executive, was brought to trial by the British government. John Walsh, Patrick Egan, John Sheridan, Frank Byrne, Patrick Tynan were welcomed in the United States, where sentiment toward the murders was less severe, although not celebratory. Carey was shot dead on board Melrose Castle off Cape Town, South Africa, on 29 July 1883, by Donegal man Patrick O'Donnell, for giving evidence against his former comrades. O'Donnell was apprehended and escorted back to London, where he was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey and hanged on 17 December 1883.
In Episode Seven of James Joyce's Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus and other characters discuss the assassinations in the offices of the Freeman newspaper. In Episode Sixteen Bloom and Dedalus stop in a cabman's shelter run by a man they believe to be James'Skin-the-Goat' Fitzharris; the Invincibles and Carey are mentioned in the folk song "Monto": When Carey told on Skin-the-goat, O'Donnell caught him on the boat He wished he'd never been afloat, the filthy skite. Twasn't sensible To tell on the Invincibles They stood up for their principles and night by going up to Monto Monto......" Podcast about the Irish National Invincibles and the Fenian Dynamite Campaign with Dr. Shane Kenna; the Phoenix Park Murders
