Life Among Convicts (1863)
by Charles Bernard Gibson (9780217502016)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. William Burke Kirwan, The Artist Of Ireland's Eye. The history of the convict, William Burke Kirwan, who was condemned to death for the murder of his wife, Maria Louisa Kirwan, on " Ireland's Eye," on the 6th of September, 1852, and whose sentence was commuted to transportation for life, will make an interesting novel, about the end of this century; for Kirwan was an artist, and his wife, a young and beautiful woman; but the facts of the case are, even now, KIRWAN, THE ARTIST. 23 more interesting than the general run of novels. Kirwan resided, with his wife, in a handsome house, at No. 11, Upper Merrion Street, a respectable part of Dublin. In the month of June, 1852, he took lodgings for himself and Mrs. Kirwan, at Howth, about nine miles from Dublin, for the sake of sea-bathing and change of air. The picturesque islet called Ireland's Eye, ia about a mile and a quarter from Howth. On Monday forenoon, the 6th of September, at about ten o'clock, Kirwan hired a boat at Howth, and landed with his wife on this islet. They had with them, a carpet-bag, a basket, two bottles, and a portfolio. The carpet-bag contained Mrs. Kirwan's bathing dress, the portfolio materials for sketching, and the basket and bottles, materials for dining. Kirwan, after dining, went to sketch, and his wife to bathe, towards a creek or cove, called the " Long Hole." She met a Mr. and Mrs. Brew, who offered her a seat in their boat to Howth, which she declined, stating that her husband had ordered a boat to call for them at eight o'clock? 24 ALONE OX IRELAND'S EYE. rather a late hour for the month of September. " I saw the lady," says Mr. Brew, in his evidence on the trial, " looking intently after my boat. I made the men put back, and asked her what she wanted ? She s...

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