"Take us out, take us out, we are suffocating." These words screamed by young children, still linger in the hearts and minds of the people of Cavan who, this morning, witnessed the terrible fire which completely destroyed one wing of the orphanage run by the Poor Clares in the main street, here. Of the total 85 inmates of the institution, 35-36 girl orphans and an aged cook now lie dead as a result of the greatest holocaust this country has seen since the disaster in Drumcollogher in 1926. The debris was still smoking when I arrived in the town, and firemen were still playing the hoses lest the fire should flare up again. The fire was first seen by Miss Cissie O'Reilly, who, from her room, saw the flames leaping skywards.

She raised the alarm, and Mr Louis Blessing, the wellknown Ulster and Cavan footballer, and Mr John McNally came on the scene.

Mr Blessing ran to inform the Guards, but when he had returned the fire had taken a firm hold. It is believed that it originated in the laundry, situated beneath the dormitory, in which the children had been trapped.

Terror-stricken children ran screaming from the building, which was a raging inferno in a matter of minutes. Some in their night clothes dashed from the town into the fields. The town was stunned by the tragedy. All shops and premises were closed, and many people gathered in the main street to watch the removal of the charred bodies from the heap of stones and burned wood.

The rescuers had worked feverishly during the day to recover all the missing bodies and daylight was fading when the remains of the last bodies were taken from the building. Into the eight plain adult coffins the remains were reverently placed, and many a strong man who wielded his shovel or pick with Herculean energy during the day wept bitterly at the tragedy of the silent and strange coffining.

Freeman's Journal
25 February 1800

Wednesday night, in the evening, between five and six o'clock, Alexander Mollison, steward to Lord Cahir, was barbarously murdered on his way from Kilcommon, to the town of Cahir by two desperadoes, who came out from the lands of Suir-bank on the high road, and after passing him, one of the ruffians fired a pistol, the ball from which entered the back of Mollison, and came out under his right breast; the unfortunate man died shortly after. A poor old man that was going the road at the time, made some little observation against the barbarity of the act upon which one of the assassins said, "Hold your tongue, you old rogue, or you will be served in the same manner."

Mollison was a Yorkshire man, and we suppose, his being a faithful servant, averse to United Irishism and treason, was the reason the cruel wretches put him to death. . . Besides the house of Mr Fleming at Westmanstown near Luttrellstown, mentioned in our last, that of Mr Kane's in the same neighbourhood, was also plundered by a banditti, who were armed with pistols and pikes. At Mr Fleming's they demanded from him 62l, which they came to a knowledge he had in his house to pay his rent . . .

but he had fortunately given it to his landlord, which he told to the offenders, much to their disappointment.

The daring conduct of those freebooters, is not a little alarming, who came prepared with cars and horses to sack his house.