MAYO TRIALS. An Account of the Arguments of Counsel, and the Directions of the Court (TRIALS OF ROWAN, FITZGERALD, FOY & MAGEE)

On a Plea or Auterfois Acquit, Pleaded by James Foy, at the Summer Assizes 1786, holden for the County of Mayo, at Ballinrobe, on the fifth day of June, to an Indictment for Procuring, stirring and provoking Andrew Creagh, otherwise Craig, and Others. To slee and murder Patrick Randal, M’Donnell, Esquire, and Charles Hipson with the Pleadings in that Case. Dublin: Printed by P. Byrne, No 108, Grafton-Street, 1786. Octavo. pp. viii, 80. With a half-title. Modern cream paper boards. A very good copy. ESTC T108993.
JISC with 6 locations only. ESTC T108993.
A rare and curious Irish legal imprint relating to one of the most notorious and violent figures in eighteenth-century Connacht, George Robert Fitzgerald, universally remembered as “Fighting Fitzgerald.” The present work records proceedings arising from the attempted prosecution of James Foy, alleged to have acted in concert with Fitzgerald and others in provoking the violent seizure and intended murder of Patrick Randal McDonnell and Charles Hipson in County Mayo. The detailed publication preserves the arguments of counsel, judicial directions, and formal pleadings surrounding a plea of autrefois acquit - the important common law principle preventing a defendant from being tried twice for the same offence.
The case belongs to the turbulent social and political landscape of late eighteenth-century rural Ireland, where local magnates, private militias, faction fighting, and agrarian violence frequently intersected with the administration of justice. The proceedings also provide a vivid contemporary insight into the legal culture of the Irish assize courts immediately prior to the upheavals of the 1790s.
George Robert Fitzgerald (1748-1790), of Turlough House, County Mayo, achieved lasting notoriety for his violent conduct, eccentricity, and defiance of authority. Educated at Eton College, Fitzgerald served with the Volunteers and became infamous throughout Ireland for his extravagant and lawless behaviour. Contemporary accounts describe him hunting by torchlight, keeping savage animals, engaging in repeated duels, and terrorising neighbours and tenants alike. His notoriety culminated in his execution at Castlebar in 1790 for the murder of his neighbour, the attorney Patrick Randal McDonnell. Fitzgerald’s dramatic career subsequently entered Irish folklore, where “Fighting Fitzgerald” became one of the best-known rogue figures of eighteenth-century Ireland.

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