Before Mr Somers Payne, in the chair, Mr J. Cullinane, Dr Bird, and Captain Welch, R.M. Jeremiah Cremeen summoned John Donovan, junr, for loss sustained by plaintiff by reason of a dog of the defendant’s attacking, and injuring a sheep of the plaintiff…. Julia Hurley summoned Julia Sullivan for abusive language. Mr P.T. Carroll appeared for the complainant, and Mr O’Donovan for the defendant. Mr Carroll, for the complainant, said she is a bed-ridden old woman, and is often abused by the defendant, who says the complainant is a fairy (laughter), and all that sort of thing introduced in the Tipperary case. The daughter of the complainant said that her mother has been bed-ridden for a number of years; on the 11th April witness was going to a well for water, when the defendant ran up and jumped up on a ditch near the well, and began to abuse her; defendant said that witness was bringing disease to the well, and that the disease from which wintness’s mother suffered was well known to the Doctor. Mr Carroll: Have you previous to this heard her make any reference to your mother? Witness: She called her a fairy several times (laughter). Mr Carroll: Did she say anything about your mother being gone, and a fairy being left in her place? Witness: Not to me. To Mr O’Donovan: The well is about 100 yards from the house of my brother. Defendant did not jump upon the fence to collect clothes that were hanging there. Defendant did not say that the well was muddied or dirty. She said I was bringing disease to the well. I did say to her ‘you are better leave me alone or I will tear the borders off of you’ (loud laughter). Mr O’Donovan. And she said something about a Clonmel fairy? (laughter). Witness: Not to me. Mr Donovan: Did she say she would beat your mother, or anything that way? Witness: No. Mr Cullinane: Is the well a public one?’ Witness: Yes. James Hurley, husband of the complainant, said that the defendant had often abused his wife and mentioned her sickness, and fairies and the like. To Mr O’Donovan, witness said he was not sure his wife had heard the names called. Mr O’Donovan said there were no threats used by the defendant. Captain Welch condemned the using of the word ‘fairy’ to the complainant. Mr Carroll said it was a monstrous thing to use such expressions to the complainant. Mrs Margaret Keohane said that she was passing the door of complainant’s house one day, and heard the defendant say ‘you have a fairy horse and a fairy wife’ (laughter). Mr O’Donovan contended there were no expressions used that could make the Bench bind the defendant to the peace. It would be bringing the law into contempt to bind the defendant to the peace, and quoted the act which stated that calling a person ‘a rogue, a liar, a rascal’ etc should not be sufficient to warrant a person being bound to the peace. Capt Welch: It does not say ‘fairy’ (laughter), and I say it is not a proper term to use. Mr Carroll said he asked that the defendant be bound to the peace. It was not right that the remark should be allowed to be made to an old bed-ridden woman, by a virago like the defendant. The daughter of the complainant was re-called and said that on the 11th inst, when the defendant used the abusive language, her mother could not have heard the words used. The Bench held that in the circumstances they could not bind to the peace. The Chairman, addressing the defendant, said if she came up again she would find herself in the wrong box. Defendant protested her innocence. Mr O’Donovan: You will be made a fairy by being sent to gaol, if you don’t mind yourself (laughter). Anon, ‘Bantry Petty Sessions: The Use of the Word Fairy’, Southern Star (27 Apr 1895) p. 2