The murder of Art Ó Laoghaire, which transpired due to a feud between the Catholic Ó Laoghaire, who captained in the Hungarian Hussars Regiment in mainland Europe, and local Protestant landowner and magistrate Abraham Morris, was a famous event from Ireland in 1773. (1/5...)

Morris alleged in 1771 that Ó Laoghaire had attacked him in Macroom, Co. Cork. In 1773, Morris tried to demand Ó Laoghaire to sell him the horse he had brought back from Hungary. This was due to a law which forbid Catholics from owning a horse worth more than £5. (2/5...)

If a Catholic had a horse worth more than £5, he could be forced to sell it to a Protestant for this price. Ó Laoghaire refused and challenged Morris to a duel. Morris declined, had him outlawed, gathered a group of soldiers and had Ó Laoghaire shot after hunting him down in May.

Ó Laoghaire’s wife, Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, wrote a famous lament for her fallen husband; a part of it is written on his tomb at Kilcrea Friary. His brother found Morris and shot him to avenge his brother in July. Morris survived, but died in 1775. (4/5...)

A Coroner’s Inquest had declared Morris and the soldiers guilty of willful murder. However, Catholics were forbidden from becoming magistrates, and an all-Protestant Magistracy found Abraham Morris innocent of any crime. The soldier who killed Art was decorated for gallantry. 5/5