Matters of life and death

During the first half of the last century, 163 people were officially executed throughout the island — 149 in the 26 counties, and 14 in the North.

In the 15 years prior to the Easter Rebellion there were 17 executions — 16 men and one woman.

The one woman was Mary Daly, who was executed in Tullamore on Jan 9, 1903, the day after the execution of her lover Joseph Taylor in Kilkenny for the murder of John Daly, Mary’s husband. Taylor was actually a nephew of the murdered man. The two were convicted largely on the evidence of Mary’s 11-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.