Castlerea Petty Session Court on 17 Feb 1877 saw a case come before the magistrates that seemed almost routine at the time but had grave and unforeseen consequences. Malachy Fox and his brother John along with their friend John Flynn were charged with assaulting Timothy Finneran and Patt Morris in the town eight days previously. A guilty verdict promptly followed with the men being sentenced to two months hard labour – a considerably harsh judgement for the offence and it was duly appealed to the higher court.
During the appeal process two months later one Thomas Weldon began his attempts to influence proceedings. Outside the court he publicly met with the O’Conor Don, one of the ruling magistrates, where he appealed for leniency. He stated that an agreeable deal had been arrange between the parties and asked for the trial to be postponed.
O’Conor agreed to do all that he could to help however another magistrate, James Young of Harristown, was of a different opinion. He was adamant that the ruling must stand setting a precedent that such crimes would not be allowed to go unpunished in the town.
The judgement stood and an outraged Weldon departed the scene incensed.
In early June of that year James Young was dead. He had been shot twice on the grounds of his estate a short distance from Castlerea train station.
Investigations by the authorities eventually settled their attention on Weldon and his accomplice Bernard McHugh. On the day of the murder the men had been spotted in a car speeding away from the town towards Ballenagar as if in a panic. Further inquiries revealed that Young had recently fired McHugh’s father-in-law in a bitter dispute that caused great anguish to the family.
McHugh himself was strongly rumoured to have been one of the leading members of the Fenian Brotherhood, an underground republican movement seeking to unite Ireland and to sever links with England. One way of severing these ties was by removing the landlords putting Young directly at odds with the organisation and it’s ideology. When he raised bog rents earlier in the year it seems that he effectively signed his own death warrant.
The prosecutors for the murder trial reiterated all these facts in their opening address and then called their main witness, a man named Launcelot Clark. This man had been an associate of both Weldon and McHugh for many years but contrariwise he had also been supplying information to the authorities about their activities. He began by stating that it was a known fact among people that McHugh was a prominent leader of the Fenian movement that he held great authority in the district.
McHugh had himself told him that he was the armourer for the whole of Connacht and a great many guns went through his hands. Clark said that he had attended many Fenian meetings with the two accused and heard men discuss overthrowing British rule beginning with the landlords.
However the most damning evidence he offered occurred a few weeks before the murder was ever committed.
He had been in a store managed by Weldon in Castlerea when Weldon said they it had been arranged for Young to be shot. They had cast lots and it had fallen on McHugh to do the shooting using a revolver that Weldon had given him. Just days after the shooting Clark said he received a message from Weldon to meet him in Carson’s Hotel in the town. They talked for a while and Weldon asked him for his contribution to the shooting. He paid £1 and this was given directly to McHugh who acknowledged that he had shot Young.
The defence case then began with them going to great efforts to belittle Clark and his testimony. They portrayed him as a man of low ethics who should not be trusted and consequently his description of the accused, themselves upstanding members of the community, must be discounted.
The jury retired to consider its verdict.

After just 25 minutes the jury had come to a unanimous decision. They had found both Thomas Weldon and Bernard McHugh totally innocent of the murder of James Young Esq. and they were free to go. This ruling was met by loud applause from the gallery that the police tried to suppress but failed. Family and friends of the co-accused carried the men from the courtroom held high on shoulders with much cheering and delirium.