The two men were then dragged outside into the road and shot with pistols "while Lydon's wife, terror-stricken, stood at the window expecting that she and her young children would share their fate.
He was a caretaker of cattle on a large farm, which was reclaimed some years earlier at the expense of Mr. Graham, the owner, who borrowed money for the purpose from the Board of Works, and by means of it afforded employment to people in the district.
"[3] Under powers granted by the Protection of Persons and Property Act 1881, Patrick Walsh's trial was moved to Dublin from Galway upon the strong recommendation of Henry Brackenbury, assistant undersecretary for police and crime.
Brackenbury had read a report written by S. I. Horne, the man in charge of the Walsh murder case, which stated that: "So demoralized by fear owning to the recent outrages and the general state of intimidation which prevails, that not only no jury dare find Pat Walsh guilty, but that no one man on such a jury dare propose to find him guilty, and that there is a certainty of acquittal.
Both men were fluent Irish speakers but were convicted in English speaking courts after having their cases moved to Green Street Dublin.
"The extraordinary decision by the Crown not to prosecute the men for the murders, may be explained by the understandable reluctance of the Authorities to draw attention to a case in which they had a year before already executed (Patrick Walsh) an innocent man for that very same offence.
The cases of both Patrick and his brother Michael are referred to during his examination in the context of their convictions and subsequent punishments being due to the unwillingness of the family to turn informers and give up the true perpetrators of the crimes.
At another point Sir Charles says "You now state that it was, in your opinion, a noble act for the mother and the son to decline to give the name, even though it would save the innocent boy's life?"
Below are extracts of a letter written by Davitt on 15 October 1882 published in Irish World newspaper on 11 November 1882 these were referred to during his questioning by the Attorney General.
As did his brother from the moment of his sentence until he mounted the scaffold in Galway Gaol a few weeks ago, so does Michael Walsh proclaim his innocence of the crime imputed to him.
I have it from the most trustworthy authority that the men who killed constable Kavanagh at Letterfrack have long since left the country, and that this poor boy, like his brother, is to [be] sacrificed to circumstantial evidence and the thirst for vengeance which now possesses the landlord-ruled Castle Executive."
"The greatest revulsion of feeling is manifest in the whole district, and, indeed it may be said in the whole country, at the contemplation of a second execution in succession so rapid in the quiet old city of Galway, particularly as the circumstances of the same unfortunate family furnish the victims, the belief in the innocence of the first, who died with a protestation on his lips, and the extreme youth of the boy now awaiting the hangman, are so exceptionally heart-rending."