On 12 November 1843, a devastating attack took place at Finnoe House, near Borrisokane. Thomas Waller, a Justice of the Peace andlandowner, was dining with his wife, their young grandson, Harriet Vereker (Mrs. Waller’s sister), and John A. Braddell. Suddenly, armed intruders burst into the dining room. Braddell tried to defend the family, but more attackers joined, and a savage struggle followed. The assailants used gun butts, iron bars, and even a plough coulter to beat the victims, while the family fought back with carving knives. The butler eventually rang the alarm bell, forcing the attackers to flee.
Neighbours arrived to find the house “like a slaughterhouse.” Thomas Waller suffered severe head injuries and a broken arm,dying weeks later. Harriet Vereker was fatally wounded, her skull split by deep cuts. Others, including Mrs. Waller, Braddell, the butler, and the four-year-old grandson, survived but were badly injured. Newspapers across Ireland and Britain called it “one of the most hideous deeds of atrocity” and“as bad as anything among the bushmen of New South Wales.”
The attack was believed to be the work of Whiteboys, agrarian agitators resisting landlords during a period of rural unrest. Waller,described as “notorious as an evicter and hunter of Catholics,” had previously faced hostility over land disputes. At least six men were thought to have entered through an open back door. Despite rewards and promises of free passage for informants, fear and silence meant no one was ever convicted. A man named Hogan was arrested, but prosecutions failed.
Historians view the Finnoe massacre as emblematic of 1840s Tipperary—a time of poverty, political tension, and violent resistance. It remains one of the most infamous crimes in Irish rural history, remembered for its brutality and the impunity of its perpetrators.
Sources:
https://www.nenaghguardian.ie/2023/09/01/barbarous-atrocity-in-borrisokane/
Debbie Blake, The Little Book of Tipperary, pp100-101.
