Mitchelstown

Mitchelstown, a market town of Co. Cork, Ireland, situated between the Kilworth and Galty Mountains, on a branch of the Great Southern & Western railway. Pop. (1901), 2146. Here is the Protestant Kingston College, a home for poor gentlefolk, founded by James, Lord Kingston, in 1760. The seat of the earls of Kingston was built in 1823. It is a massive castellated structure, among the finest of its kind in Ireland. The Mitchelstown limestone caves, exhibiting beautiful stalactite formations, are 6 m. distant in Co. Tipperary. On the 9th of September 1887 Mitchelstown was the scene of a riot in connexion with the Irish Nationalist "plan of campaign." The police were compelled to fire on the rioters, and two men were killed, after which the coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against the police. This verdict was ignored by the government, and subsequently quashed by the Queen's Bench in Dublin, but additional feeling was roused in respect of the incident owing to a message later sent by Mr Gladstone ending with the words "Remember Mitchelstown."