Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police MagistratePorter, Frank Thorpe
History
Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police Magistrate
Porter, Frank Thorpe
Crime -- Ireland; Criminals -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs; Porter, Frank Thorpe, 1801-1882
Almost immediately after the collision between the police and the
collegians, a song was composed, in reference to the affair, by a
gentleman who has acquired by it and several other productions of a
comic character, a reputation which obtains for him a most enthusiastic
reception in the choicest convivial reunions. He introduces the most
extravagant fictions, and enunciates them with such apparent
seriousness, as suffices completely to dissolve the gravity of his
hearers. His song on the "College Row" imputes the "doleful tragedy" to
the resentment of the Duchess of Sutherland, Lord Carlisle's sister,
consequent on his loss of the Lord Lieutenancy, and the appointment of
Lord Eglinton. She communicates by telegrams with the Commissioners of
Police, and remits five hundred pounds to supply their force with ardent
spirits, closing the communication with an injunction, that in case of
any enthusiasm being manifested by the students on the public entry of
Eglinton, they should be at once subjected to the most unsparing
application of swords, batons, and bayonets. The ballad describes the
carnage provoked by the explosion of a few crackers and squibs, as being
fully equal to the worst excesses of our Indian sepoys in their mutinous
massacres. I have heard it sung in the presence of Colonel Brown and
other police functionaries; and from all who heard its fearful but
fictitious details, it elicited the utmost merriment. I have been
informed that in his subsequent viceroyalty, Lord Carlisle and his Chief
Secretary had it frequently sung by the author, who is now connected
with the Dublin police in an important professional capacity.
THE COOK STREET PRINTER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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