KIRWAN, THE ARTIST.

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more interesting than the general run of novels.

Kirwan resided, with his wife, in a handsome house, at No. 11, Upper Merrion Street, a respectable part of Dublin. In the month of June, 1852, he took lodgings for himself and Mrs. Kirwan, at Howth, about nine miles from Dublin, for the sake of sea-bathing and change of air.

The picturesque islet called Ireland's Eye, is about a mile and a quarter from Howth. On Monday forenoon, the 6th of September, at about ten o'clock, Kirwan hired a boat at Howth, and landed with his wife on this islet. They had with them, a carpet-bag, a basket, two bottles, and a portfolio. The carpet-bag contained Mrs. Kirwan's bathing dress, the portfolio materials for sketching, and the basket and bottles, materials for dining.

Kirwan, after dining, went to sketch, and his wife to bathe, towards a creek or cove, called the "Long Hole." She met a Mr. and Mrs. Brew, who offered her a seat in their boat to Howth, which she declined, stating that her husband had ordered a boat to call for them at eight o'clock

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ALONE ON IRELAND'S EYE.

rather a late hour for the month of September.

"I saw the lady," says Mr. Brew, in his evidence on the trial, " looking intently after my boat. I made the men put back, and asked her what she wanted? She said nothing, but told the boatmen to come for her at eight o'clock." Had she, at that time, a presentiment or suspicion of danger?

It is growing dark, and Mrs. Kirwan is on the island alone with her husband, when Hugh Campbell, a fish-jolter of Howth, hears a shriek and cries, as of distress. The cries come from Ireland's Eye. Thomas Larkin, a fisherman, hears similar cries from the deck of his hooker. The cries are from the direction of the creek, or Long Hole, where Mrs. Kirwan went to bathe.

The boatmen returned, according to previous arrangement, at eight o'clock, to bring Mr. and Mrs. Kirwan from the island to Howth. It is nearly dark. They hail Mr. Kirwan, who comes down to the beach alone. One of the boatmen asks, "Where is the mistress ?"

DISCOVERY OF THE BODY.

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"I have not seen her since the shower of rain,"

is Kirwan's reply. The "shower" was at six o'clock, two hours before. Kirwan and the boatman Nagle go in search of her, and return without finding her. The search is renewed, when Mrs. Kirwan's body is found in the Long Hole or creek. She is quite dead, lying on her back on a rock, now known as the " Body Rock." When the body was found, the rock was dry, the tide having receded six feet from it. The lady's bathing dress was gathered up under her arms with the bathing sheet "partly under the body," which was warm. There were scratches under the eyes, blood on the face, and blood flowing from the ears and another part of the body. Kirwan came up, and threw himself on the corpse,

exclaiming, "Oh, Maria! Maria!"

The body was conveyed to Mrs. Campbell's, where they had lodged. A coroner's inquest was held the next day. Kirwan was the principal witness. The two Nagles, boatmen, were also examined. A medical student named Hamilton

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WHISPERS OF FOUL PLAY.

was examined. The finding of the coroner's jury was that "the deceased had been drowned, whilst

bathing on Ireland's Eye." The body was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Here it lay about a month, when whispers of foul play on the part of the husband began to circulate in Howth and the surrounding neighbourhood, until they reached the ears of the magistrates and police. Informations were sworn by Margaret Campbell, the sextoness of Howth church, with whom they had lodged, by the Nagles, who found the body, and by Hugh Campbell and Thomas Larkin, who heard the screams, and by others.

Margaret Campbell's information testified, that for the first fortnight they lodged with her, Kirwan and his wife did not live happy together; but that during the remaining time, up to her death, informant considers no couple could have lived more united.

This does not exactly tally with her evidence at the trial.

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES.

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"During the first month or six weeks they lodged with me, I observed quarrelling between them more than once. I heard angry words from Mr. Kirwan to his wife. I heard him miscall her, and call her a strumpet. I heard him say, 'I'll finish you.' I do not think they had been a month with me at that time. The same evening I heard her say to him, 'Let me alone, I'm black from the usage I have got from you.'"

This witness also testified, that on the night of the 6th of September, when her body was brought home, she saw Kirwan come in with his feet wet and put on dry stockings. I may here observe that the full impression abroad was that he had either drowned his wife, by holding her head under water, or had suffocated or burked her, by holding a wet sheet upon her mouth; for at half-past six o'clock, when Kirwan said she went to bathe, there were but two feet six inches of water over the rock on which the body was found; and at seven o'clock, when the cries were heard, there