Cormack Brothers

On Tuesday 11 May 1858 an event occurred in Nenagh Gaol that has remained a part of the lore and history of the town and surrounding district ever since. The event was the public execution by hanging of two brothers named William and Daniel Cormack.

The brothers, who came from the parish of Loughmore in nearby Templemore, were convicted of the murder of a local land agent named John Ellis.

The story of the Cormack Brothers is well known, not only in County Tipperary and Ireland but as far afield as England, Canada, USA, and Australia. In Ireland it has been adopted for the stage both as straight drama and musical and as a novel.

In the minds of most people at the time, and to the present day, the innocence of The Cormack Brothers and the fact that they were the victims of a grave miscarriage of justice has never been in dispute. Their last words on the scaffold was to proclaim their innocence.

The gatehouse and execution area of the gaol complex. The statue is in front of doors which opened inwards to give access to the scaffold.

The gatehouse from the inside with the spire of St Mary's Catholic Church in the background. The Church, of course, was not there at the time of public executions. The area which it now occupies would have been thronged with people who had come to witness the gory spectacle, or to pray for the condemned.

John Ellis was shot dead on the night of Thursday 22 October 1857. In life he was an agent for a local land owner, named John Trant. In that capacity, he would have been responsible for Mr Trant’s tenants and would make decisions on the renewal or non-renewal of a tenancy. Putting a new tenant into a holding from which a sitting tenant had been evicted would put the life of the landlord, agent and indeed the new tenant at enormous risk. On that score, the Cormacks, who were employees of John Trant, would have had no motive for murdering Ellis; they had never been evicted from land and, in fact, had never occupied land belonging to Trant or any other landlord.

The story of the Cormack Brothers, their arrest, trial and execution and the subsequent exhumation of their remains in 1910, to be buried in their native Loughmore, is well documented in a book that I have just read. The book entitled Guilty or Innocent? is written by local author and historian Nancy Murphy.

One of the condemned cells where a prisoner would have spent his last hours

Mrs Murphy’s book gives a factual and unbiased account, after years of research, of all the events surrounding the case, the relationship between the Cormacks and the victim and the alleged affair of one of their sisters with John Ellis, which was put forward at the time as a possible motive for his murder.

Mrs Murphy’s exhaustive research into official records, police reports and newspaper articles of the time has put the lore under fresh inquiry.

The back cover of Nancy Murphy's book.

The book, Guilty or Innocent? Can be purchased locally at book shop outlets in Nenagh, Thurles and Templemore and at the Heritage Centre, Nenagh. If any of my overseas readers would like to purchase a copy, they will get details of price and postage at relaybooks@eircom.net

My thanks to...

Martina of Nenagh Heritage Centre for showing me around the gatehouse complex and for her very knowledgeable explanations of the role each cell and area played in the last days and moments of a condemned man's life.

Nancy Murphy for her kind permission for the publication of the page of her book.

My friend Pat Whelan for his everready willingness to give assistance.