The Times
London, Middlesex, England
April 6, 1864

Bernard Caughey was executed at Cavan yesterday for the murder of Peter Reilly. He was the son of a cottier in the neighbourhood. He was only 27 years of age. When a boy he was employed by the murdered man, til he lost his hand in consequence of the bite of an ass. He then became a pauper; next an itinerant hardware dealer; then one of a a band of cattle stealers, in which capacity he was tried and convicted at Trim Assizes in 1861. He got out as a ticket-of-leave man, and , failing to procure employment, he went to his old master, whom he treacherously murdered in the night. He betrayed no emotion at his trial. When put down in the dock after conviction he said to fellow-prisoner, "Did I not stand it well? I will die like a man." Only about 200 or 300 people, mostly young persons, witnessed the execution. The hangman, when leaving Cavan for Armagh by the train was hooted, and if efforts had not been made to keep away the populace he would have been roughly handled. In reply to an exhortation from the Roman Catholic Chaplain the convict said, "He confessed his sins, and hoped to obtain forgiveness through the blood of Lord Jesus Christ."

Submitted by: County Cavan Newspaper Transcription Project