Free Dublin Folktales by Brendan Nolan

think he could. Lord Clonmel ordered that Jackson be taken away, and that care be taken that no mischief be done to him. Revd Jackson was to be remanded until further orders of the court. Under the circumstances, Clonmel said, it was as much for the defendant’s advantage as for anyone else’s to adjourn the hearing.
    However, the Sheriff now informed the court that the prisoner was in fact dead. Given this turn of events, Lord Clonmel ordered that an inquest be held on the body. He wanted to know by what means Revd Jackson had died. The Court made to adjourn, but as Clonmel was retiring from the bench to his chamber, the Sheriff inquired how he should act with regard to the dead body. His lordship, without pausing in his progress, replied that he should act as is usual in such cases; as if prisoners expired in the dock, with their wigs on fire, on a regular basis. His comment was interpreted to mean that the corpse should stay where it was. The body of the deceased therefore remained in the dock, unmoved from the position, in which its owner had expired. It stayed there until the following day, when an inquest was held.
    It was found that, on his way to court that morning, Jackson had reportedly vomited out of the carriage window, suggesting that something was amiss before his head ever started to steam in court. An autopsy on the corpse foundthat Jackson had ingested a large quantity of a metallic poison. The suggestion was that it had been administered by his wife, but she was never proceeded against for such a crime, though she could have been said to have benefitted from the sudden demise of her husband. The effect of his suicide was that, since he had not been sentenced for treason by the court, his family could inherit his goods, and a pension to boot.
    The remains of the Revd Jackson were brought to St Michan’s church on Church Street and buried in the graveyard there. His resting place was close to the church, underneath which are the mummified remains of several people, preserved by the unique atmosphere in the limestone vaults. Among the remains are a 100-year-old nun; a very large man, popularly believed to have been a crusader; a body with its feet and right hand severed; and the Sheares brothers, Henry and John, who took part in the 1798 rebellion. A suitable collection of silent companions for the man that cheated the court out of taking his life away from him by voluntarily giving up his own life.
    Interred in the same graveyard as Jackson is Oliver Bond, a leader of the United Irishmen, whom Jackson in all probability had met. Bond also cheated the Crown of its punishment of him for his activities. Bond was arrested in 1798 and sentenced to death. Like Jackson, he was defended by John Philpot Curran and George Ponsonby, eminent men in their day. His sentence was commuted, but within five weeks he died suddenly of apoplexy. These men certainly had a lot to talk about, wherever they all ended up in the afterlife. Especially when Clonmel joined them in their new abode. We can but hope that it was not a place where heads on fire is so normal a sight that no one remarks on it.

11
S T V ALENTINE
    Say what you like, but it’s hard to claim that St Valentine is actually a Dubliner. For that you would need to be either born in the city, or to have lived in Dublin long enough to seem like you are a local. Having your bones brought to Dublin by a priest, on his way home from a business trip, is not quite the same thing.
    This is supposed to have happened to St Valentine’s remains, which are now venerated in Dublin. However, there are other cities that claim to posses the remains of the patron saint of lovers. Maybe his bones were separated and everyone has a part of him. Or maybe there may have been umpteen Valentines in existence, so when they all died, their bones could have been spread around the world, so fretting lovers could seek their intercession in matters romantic. Whoever he was, the feast of St