Peter Dempsey was a tenant farmer

Tenant farmer

A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...

 who was murdered during the Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 Land War

Land War

The Land War in Irish history was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and was dedicated to bettering the position of tenant farmers and ultimately to a redistribution of land to tenants from...

 in 28 May, 1881. He was shot to death while walking to Mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

 with his two daughters across a field mass path

Mass path

A mass path is a pedestrian track or road connecting destinations frequently used by rural communities, most usually the destination of Sunday Mass. They were most common during the centuries that preceded motorised transportation in Western Europe, and in particular the British Isles; and the...

.

Dempsey had taken over an 18 acres (72,843.5 m²) holding near Hollypark, Loughrea

Loughrea

Loughrea is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The town lies north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains.The town expanded in recent years as it increasingly becomes a commuter town for the city of Galway.- Name :...

 after the previous tenant, Murty Hynes, had given it up following a speech by Matt Harris. Hynes relinquished the holdings in September 1880 after Harris, who was a Fenian

Fenian

The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...

, Land Leaguer

Irish National Land League

The Irish Land League was an Irish political organization of the late 19th century which sought to help poor tenant farmers. Its primary aim was to abolish landlordism in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked on...

, nationalist

Irish nationalism

Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...

 and British

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, condemned him in a speech for taking a farm from the previous occupant (Martin Bermingham) had been evicted for non-payment of rent.

But Dempsey, though, refused to leave the farm and was killed.

Two men were charged with murder. But they were both acquitted for lack of evidence after witness intimidation. Only a few attended the Dempsey's funeral out of fear of assault or reprisal.

See also

• Martin O'Halloran
  Martin O'Halloran
  -Biography:Secretary of the Kiltullagh Branch of the Irish Land League. Bound over to keep the peace for having made a seditious speech at Craughwell in the course of which he threatened to disarm the police, called upon herds to leave their employment and claimed that that landlords were “were...
  
  
• James Connors (Kiltullagh)
  James Connors (Kiltullagh)
  James Connors , Irish tenant, murdered May 1881.Connors was a tenant at Forgehill, Toolooban, on the estate of Denis St George Daly, 2nd Baron Dunsandle and Clanconal . The farm consisted of fourteen acres....
  
  
• John Henry Blake
  John Henry Blake
  John Henry Blake , was an Irish land agent, who was murdered on 29 June 1882.-Biography:He was the third and youngest son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Blake of Furbo, County Galway, and Maria Galway of Cork. He was a member of one of The Tribes of Galway...
  
  
• Thomas Henry Burke (civil servant)
• Hubert de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde
  Hubert de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde
  Hubert George de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde , was an Anglo-Irish ascendancy nobleman and politician....
  
  

Sources

• The Land War in South East Galway (1879-1891), a thesis
  Thesis
  A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
  
   by Anne Finnegan
• As The Centuries Passed: A History of Kiltullagh 1500–1900, edited Kieran Jordan, 2000
  • The Land Wars, Kevin and Kieran Jordan, in op.cit.
• The District of Loughrea: Vol. I History 1791-1918. ISBN 0 9546567 0 9