[1] Evidence of ancient settlement in the Bodyke area includes a number of ringfort, enclosure and tower house sites in the townlands of Ballydonaghan, Caherhurly, Coolready and Coolreagh More.

[3] During the 1880s, the principal landowner in the Bodyke area, George O'Callaghan-Westropp (Colonel O'Callaghan), had refused to lower the rents he charged his tenants.

Colonel O'Callaghan, accompanied by a force of approximately 150 police, arrived in Bodyke to serve writs upon 26 tenants for non-payment of rents.

The tenants of Bodyke were forewarned of this, and by the time O'Callaghan and his party reached the area, a large crowd had gathered to protest against the evictions.

Murphy arrived at the scene and found "the police with their bayonets fixed presented at the breasts of the people, who stood in a dense mass before them, armed with pronged forks, clubs, and sticks".

Murphy succeeded in defusing the tension between the parties by "having to take the bayonets of the police in my hands and the muzzles of the guns and turn them towards the ground to make room to stand between them in order to separate them and the people".

The police then handcuffed 22 unarmed members of the public together in a group and led them around as protection as they proceed to serve the remaining writs throughout the area.

[9] Twenty-six people, all but four of them women, were charged with assaulting and obstructing the forces of the law, with sentences ranging from acquittal to three months hard labour.