BY JOHN FITZGERALD
(PART TWO)
The fight arranged between Denton and Barry (and their followers) loomed.
Edmund Barry had refused to withdraw his allegation regarding the pig. He’d accepted Denton’s challenge to a duel between their respective factions. The contest was set for noon on November 20th.
From early morning on that day, hundreds of men began assembling for the fight. Denton’s faction had been training on the Fair Green for almost a week before the event. Barry’s followers were equally prepared for battle. As midday approached, the rival groups took up their positions on the Green.
An English ‘gentleman of leisure’, who happened to be passing through Callan at the time described the scene: “It put me in mind of the field at Waterloo, with the endless ranks of warriors. I dare say… these Irish take their quarrels seriously. I wonder what the issue was”
He didn’t stay around to find out. The tense atmosphere was not to his liking and he ordered his coach driver to take him post haste out of Callan.
Under a bleak winter sky, the factions faced each other. Eyes blazed with defiance and hatred. Denton shouted across at Barry, inviting him to apologise and admit he was lying about the pig. Barry just laughed and spat on the ground beside him. He declined the offer.
Not only had Denton stole McNiff’s pig, he suggested, but he had unlawfully removed more than 50 other pigs from farms in the Callan district over a four-year period.
He went on to imply that Denton was “a glutton for pork and bacon” and had eaten all the pigs himself in “the dead of night” after robbing hard working farmers of their livestock.
Denton gave the signal to attack. Barry’s contingent used willow baskets and sceachs (bushes) to ward off a fusillade of stones that rained down on them from the opposite camp. But many heads were gashed and bruised by the missiles. Denton’s men then advanced towards Barry’s faction.
The ensuing clash was prolonged and bloody. Blackthorn sticks lashed out in all directions. Wrestling, bare knuckle fights, and an early version of kick boxing dominated the action, though men could also be seen dragging their foes along the ground by the hair, or beating them with axe handles, shovels, and other implements deemed appropriate for the occasion.
After about two hours of continuous, hate-filled strife, the long arm of the law managed to reach Callan. Forty-seven baton-wielding constables came running through the town, heading towards the Fair Green. Sergeant Colin O’Keeffe beheld the scene of mayhem.
He shook his head in disbelief. Standing in front of his men, he called upon the factions to disperse or face the consequences. But the fighting continued.
He repeated his plea three times. Then, as he began to spell out the implications of non-compliance with his decree, a stone struck him in the forehead. Blood oozed from the wound. The police charged into the ranks of the faction fighters. Batons met blackthorn sticks as both sides in the dispute turned against the police.
The resulting three-sided conflict subsided only after the combatants had exhausted themselves. Ironically, Barry and Denton did not come to blows in the melee. They both let their loyal followers do the fighting for them.
Neither man was among those arrested and taken to Kilkenny jail, and neither turned up in court to give moral support to the fighters when justice was meted out. The convicted brawlers had to pay their own fines.
On November 25th, less than a week after the showdown, there was a final twist in this tale of two factions: Patrick McNiff strolled into the Red Lion tavern.
He ordered a drink and then made a casual remark, which stunned those who heard it. No pig had ever been stolen from him, he revealed, and what, he asked, was all that trouble about on the Green?
(My book Callan in words and pictures is available from Amazon)
