The Irish text Párliament na mBan or 'The Parliament of Women' was dedicated by its author, Domhnall Ó Colmáin,' to a young James Cotter in 1697.
The judge presiding on the case was, however, Sir St. John Brodrick; who, as a close relative of James Cotter's accuser, was hardly impartial; the jury had also been packed – all twelve of its members were justices of the peace.
The trial took place in a period of heightened rumour of Jacobite invasion; a large number of arms for cavalry were found in Cork which triggered a scare until it was discovered that they were government owned and intended for a local militia unit.
A bizarre element in Cotter's downfall were the pleas for mercy expressed by both the jury which had convicted him and Elizabeth Squibb, his alleged victim.
Attempts to gain a pardon in Dublin were proceeding and a stay of execution was sent, however, the hanging was deliberately brought forward and it did not arrive in time.
The gallows erected for the execution had been destroyed by some of the citizens of Cork and the hanging was extemporised using a rope attached to a metal staple in a vertical post.
[7] Up to twenty poems in Irish (Gaelic) survive which reflect the widespread dismay felt at James Cotter's execution.,[8] including ones by Éadbhard de Nógla, son of his close friend, the lawyer Patrick Nagle.