Remember Poff and Barrett: A Journey towards Justice
Go máire ainmneacha James Barrett agus Sylvester Poff go deo May the names of James Barrett and Sylvester Poff live forever Castleisland District Heritage will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year. Among the many projects undertaken during this period, two are of particular note, the Posthumous Pardon of John Twiss of Cordal, Castleisland in 2021, […]
‘A Community on Trial’: An Overview of ‘Murder at Dromulton’
Murder at Dromulton, a study of the circumstances surrounding the tragic case of Thomas Browne of Dromultan, Co Kerry, shot dead in 1882 during agrarian unrest, and the subsequent executions of Sylvester Poff of Mountnicholas and James Barrett of Dromultan for the crime, is the work of the late Peter O’Sullivan of Dublin.[1] O’Sullivan’s […]
The Poff Family of County Kerry
Sylvester Poff of Mountnicholas was hanged in Tralee prison, alongside his cousin, James Barrett of Dromultan, on 23 January 1883. They had been convicted of the murder of Thomas Browne of Dromultan. James Barrett was unmarried. Sylvester Poff had been married for eight years to Anne Sugrue, and was a father to Mary, Hannah, […]
Poff and Barrett: Global Search for Justice
Sylvester Poff and James Barrett, hanged on 23 January 1883 for the murder of Thomas Browne of Dromultan, Co Kerry, rest not. Their Dying Declarations of innocence speak to us still, and from new documents acquired by the O’Donohoe Collection, it is shown that their protestations of innocence were uttered to their very last breaths. […]
Poff’s Farm: Recollections of Michael Marshall, formerly of Mountnicholas
Sylvester Poff, who with James Barrett was hanged on 23 January 1883 for the murder of Thomas Browne, was evicted from his farm at Mountnicholas, Co Kerry, in 1881. The dwelling house was demolished at the time of the eviction but the foundations remained. About twenty years later, the farm was sold by the […]
Poff and Barrett: Last Words
The most remarkable fact in connection with the case is that both the men, though in separate cells, without any communication with each other, protested all through, and above all, at the last supreme moment, their absolute innocence. Derry Journal, 26 January 1883 In 1919, it was remarked that ‘Tralee Gaol contains the calcined remains […]
Poff and Barrett: The Testimony of Bridget Brosnan
‘The case should stand or fall on the evidence of Bridget Brosnan’1 On the day after Sylvester Poff and James Barrett were hanged in Tralee prison for the murder of Thomas Browne, a reporter remarked that it was ‘a matter for note’ that Mrs Brosnan, one of the chief witnesses at the trial, swore at […]
Poff and Barrett: Final Hours
‘A universal belief in the innocence of the prisoners prevails in this county’ On Tuesday 23 January 1883, the day of the execution of Sylvester Poff and James Barrett, the shops in Castleisland remained closed all day, as a mark of sympathy with the condemned men. The situation was the same in Tralee, the town […]
Remember Poff and Barrett
Mountnicholas – the former homeland of Sylvester Poff – and its surrounding townlands suffered their share of eviction, violence and grief during the land struggles of the 1880s. The rents on the farms made vacant were ‘in every case double the government valuation, in many instances nearly treble.’1 On 3 April 1881, Sylvester Poff’s […]
