1896 – “Rorke’s Drift Comes to Kilsheelan”

Nationalist, 27 June 1896

Co. Tipperary Petty Sessions heard a curious case in June 1896, which had a distinctly African feel about it. Before Col. Evanson R.M. was a gentleman who had armed himself with something approaching an assegai, the kind of traditional African spear that you probably last saw being thrown at a Redcoat in the movies. The learned judge’s reaction to these bizarre events was to brand Kilsheelan “a curious little village”. The name of the warrior has been protected, but suffice to say that it wasn’t Shaka Zulu…