The Trials of Peter Barrett: A Microhistory of Dysfunction in the Irish Criminal Justice System

In 1869 an assassination attempt was made on Captain Thomas Eyre Lambert. Lambert, a prominent Galway landowner, was returning home to Castle Lambert from his brother Giles’s residence at neighbouring Moor Park.1 Lambert spotted a man lurking beneath some lime trees near the entrance to his house, and was fired at a number of times. He was eventually felled by a shot to the forehead. He staggered to the door of his house, and later recalled: ‘…[w]hen I reached the hall door I knocked violently, my butler opened the door and I fell into his arms.’ He soon sent for his brother. Given a description of the assailant, Giles hastened to the Athenry constabulary station, a mile or two away, and relayed the information to acting constable John Griffith.