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"On the morning of 2 April 1878, while traveling�between his Manorvaughan domicile and the town of Milford in Co. Donegal, Ireland, William Sidney Clements, the Third Earl of Leitrim�was ambushed and killed," his hand full with red human hair. Though this exulting beginning sounds much like a fictional murder mystery, it is actually a riveting mystery about the assassination of William Sydney C... More

"On the morning of 2 April 1878, while traveling�between his Manorvaughan domicile and the town of Milford in Co. Donegal, Ireland, William Sidney Clements, the Third Earl of Leitrim�was ambushed and killed," his hand full with red human hair. Though this exulting beginning sounds much like a fictional murder mystery, it is actually a riveting mystery about the assassination of William Sydney Clements, the Third Earl of County Leitrim, Ireland. His assassination was apparently an end to his "Tyranny of Landlordism," and it also led to the capsizing of widespread abuse of tenants by their landlords. The red hair found in Lord Leitrim's lifeless hand implicated a resident of the county. So, in an act of solidarity, the entire population of the community shaved their heads to guard against the evidence. And, even to this day, the members of the county are only willing to give up what amounts to speculation and rumor, though it is clear that venom for the long-deceased villain, Lord Leitrim, is still potent in the present. The reader is painted a clear picture of how despised Lord Leitrim was in the eyes of the community. Ultimately, we see that the people's hatred for and fear of their oppressive landlord brought them together in camaraderie. On the Banks of Mulroy Bay compiles, with great detail and thought, a plethora of remembrances, songs, and stories of folk experiences with the notorious William Sydney Clements, the Third Earl of Leitrim. The authors, D.K. Wilgus and Eleanor R. Long-Wilgus, convey inherited songs and accounts in the voices of people who met personally, or knew all-too-well, about the tyrannical Clements. As with all folklore, many of the narratives have been reinterpreted over the years, a fundamental truth always underlying them, which ultimately serves to make On the Banks of Mulroy Bay a powerful chronicle of times past. Told in song as well as spoken verse and eyewitness accounts, we are launched headlong into a whodunit of facts and history mixed with a healthy dose of fable. Most intriguing is that many of the sources for On the Banks of Mulroy Bay are current residents of Counties Leitrim and Donegal, whom the authors met during four excursions to Ireland.

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