264 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



midnight, when the picturesque is not always seen to 

 the greatest advantage. 



It was Sydney Smith wiio said : ' AVhen the 

 Dublin mail was stopped and robbed, my brother 

 declares that a sw^eet female voice w^as heard behind 

 the hedge exclaiming, " Shoot the gentleman, then, 

 Patrick dear !" '* If this event occurred at all, it 

 was certainly not the Cashel mail which w^as assailed. 

 Michael Meagher, its guard, duly armed, would have 

 been too strong for any reasonable display of footpads 

 or highwaymen. This plucky official won repute by 

 dashing in upon burglars as he came off the coach in 

 Cashel at two o'clock on a June morning in 1835. A 

 brother guard, Edward Ladbrook, came to the rescue, 

 and there w^as a ' desperate struggle in Eyan's shop,' 

 which ended in the capture of the thieves. Both 

 these guards were men of the highest character, and 

 apparently of dauntless courage. 



If the mail-guards were courageous in the presence 

 of danger, the constabulary were not less so. But 

 for the exertions of Constable Kennedy and the police 

 of Meelick on October 21, 1846, a sorry tale w^ould 

 have been told of the Limerick and Galway coach. 

 For as it drew near the Cross of Cratloe the waters 

 were out. Storms of rain had done great damage 

 far and wide, and, due to the tempestuous weather 

 which prevailed, the mail - coaches, even the mail- 

 packets, suffered severely. The Limerick road 

 towards Ennis was flooded for miles. A leading- 

 * ' A Memoir,' by Lady Holland. Longmans, 1855. 



