[2] In March, Hamilton began legal proceedings to enforce collection, and in November the Dublin Castle administration issued tithe processes relating to the defaulters.

Hamilton's land agent, James Bunbury, employed Edmund Butler, a local butcher, to serve these processes to the tenants.

On 12 December, Butler set out, protected by 38 constables under the command of a sub-inspector, Captain James Gibbons, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars.

[2] This man was later reputed to be William Keane, a hedge schoolmaster and veteran of the 1798 Wexford Rebellion who had arrived in nearby Ballyhale in 1830.

He was defended by Daniel O'Connell, who argued that an impartial jury was impossible, and that a ballad praising the Carrickshock 'murderers' was prejudicial.

[10] A crowd of up to 200,000 from surrounding counties gathered at an anti-tithe meeting at Ballyhale in July 1832, in part to intimidate jurors at the murder trial.

[14] The Church of Ireland bishops decided to suspend collection of tithes pending discussion by Parliament of the security situation.

[15] Colonel Sir John Harvey stated that, though he felt this discrepancy was accidental and not sectarian in cause, it had created tension between Catholic and Protestant members of the Constabulary.

Gary Owens notes six commemorative poems and ballads, four in English and two in Irish, published in the following years.