Nenagh sensation as local man shot and robbed in Belleen a century ago

Returning from Nenagh to his home at Belleen shortly after midnight on Friday, Mr Hugh Carroll, Secretary of the North Tipperary Farmers Union, was held up by armed men, who first relieved him of £63, and then wounded him in the left arm.

The rest of the report from our issue of August 8 1925, reads as follows:

According to the facts, as supplied to the Nenagh Civic Guard by Mr Carroll, he was proceeding on his bicycle to his home at 12.15am when suddenly three men, one of whom was armed with a revolver, rushed from a gateway on the road and peremptorily call on him to dismount.

When he had complied, he was ordered to put his hands up. He refused and offered resistance, whereupon he was submitted to a considerable amount of rough handling at the hands of his aggressors, who eventually overpowered him. He was then searched and £63 which he had on his person taken from him.

Not content, apparently, with relieving him of the money, the armed member of the party, Mr Carroll states, next caught him by the collar, and levelling the revolver at him, deliberately fired, wounding him in the left arm, just above the wrists, remarking, “Take that”.

The three men then quickly decamped, leaving their victim on the roadway. Though blood flowed freely from the wound, Mr Carroll managed to make his way to the neighbouring house of Mr James McCarty, where the flow of blood was staunched for the time being with a temporary dressing. 

Shortly afterwards, when the wounded man had sufficiently recovered, Mr McCarthy accompanied him to Nenagh, where he was attended by Dr Courtney, who ordered him to the Nenagh hospital for further treatment.

When the news of the shooting was circulated in Nenagh this morning it created a sensation in the town and throughout the day was the principal topic of conversation. The money appropriated by the robbers is stated to belong to the Farmers Union.