History & Haunting of : The Old Courthouse. Lifford, Co. Donegal, Ireland We’ve heard our fair share of ghost stories here at The Old Courthouse, some more creepy than others! The locals talk of past night-watchmen too scared to even enter the building and of countless ‘things’ going bump in the night..... International medium Marion Goodfellow visit here >> https://youtube/watch?v=V7rrvb0kmyc Lifford Courthouse or Lifford Jail, as it is sometimes referred to by locals, is a historic courthouse situated in the centre of Lifford, County Donegal, in the Northwest of Ireland. The building was designed by local architect Michael Priestley and built in 1746 in order to enable a circuit assizes judge to visit the county. The Courthouse also incorporated The County Gaol in the basement which was to last as a place of confinement for debtors, felons and eventually those deemed to be lunatics, until a new jail was completed next to the courthouse in 1793. This large jail allowed more prisoners to be processed in the town before being demolished in 1907. The Courthouse itself, however, continued to hold trials until 1938. For a time, the building fell into disrepair before being improved in the late 1980s and then fully renovated and reopened as an award-winning Heritage Centre in 1994 The introduction of this purpose-built courthouse gave the County Donegal Grand Jury a place to hold trials in the form of periodic criminal courts or assizes. Up until this point, when the Manor Courts were the most common institutions of local justice, any building of suitable size was used to hold court. Quite often, the most suitable building was a public house. On one noted occasion, the money from the fines collected over the course of a day in court was used to buy drinks for the jury.... Transportation was a common punishment in Lifford, with many sent by boat to colonies overseas. Crimes in the courthouse that warranted a sentence of transportation include stealing 2 caps, stealing a handkerchief and blankets and stealing 5 chickens and 2 hens.Public hangings were also a common spectacle. One hanging in 1831 alone is reported as drawing a crowd of around 12 thousand men, women and children. The gallows, at the front of the new gaol, were also the setting for the infamous half-hanging of John Half-Hung MacNaghten, in one of the earliest recorded public hangings at the courthouse in 1761. It was not only murder that carried the sentence of death in Donegal at that time, but also killing and maiming cattle and horse-stealing. The last public execution in Lifford is thought to have been in 1847. With the phasing out of transportation, prison sentences became a more common punishment in Ireland. Some prisoners were sentenced to an additional punishment of hard labour during their stay in Lifford. Just as in many other prisons throughout Ireland, this usually consisted of breaking stones which were then used to build and repair roads, or grinding up bones, which would then be used as fertilizer. Another more public punishment was whipping, sometimes performed in the town where the offense was originally committed Notable prisoners John Half Hanged MacNaghten. was an Anglo-Irish land owner, gambler and convicted murderer. The more romantic versions of the tale portray MacNaghtens victim Mary Ann as his lover whose marriage was forbidden by her over-bearing father.In November 1761, an attempt by MacNaghten and his followers to abduct Mary Ann from a carriage on a family journey to Dublin Parliament and elope with her failed, when he shot and mortally wounded her by mistake. He was taken to Lifford Courthouse in Donegal, where a court found MacNaghten guilty of murder and he was sentenced to execution by hanging. MacNaghten hurled himself from the gallows with such force that the rope broke. He had the sympathy of the crowd who believed this was divine intervention for a man distraught with grief over the death of his love.Despite the belief that MacNaghten could not be hanged a second time, he failed to use the cover of a sympathetic crowd to make good his escape and was hanged successfully at the second attempt, on 16 December 1761 James Napper Tandy, founding member of the Society of United Irishmen. The crew of La Hoche. the French frigate on which Wolfe Tone was captured .wikipedia.org liffordoldcourthouse/ Photo 1 by Ruth Graham - Photo 2 by ~Lcourthouse - Donegals County Gaol in the basement of the Old Courthouse Photos 3,4,5,6 from liffordoldcourthouse/are-there-any-skeletons-in-your-family-cupboard/
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 12:13:00 +0000
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