1. The rent was too high
2. They could not afford to pay in any case
The fact that the landlord was an absentee did not help matters. In August 1934 at Longford District Court, Gerald More O'Ferrall, Lisard House, Edgeworthstown was appointed land agent for the Sanderson estate. He was a large landowner himself and set about his appointed task of collecting the outstanding rents. When tenants refused to pay this rent he secured eviction orders against 11 tenants. As a result of this the Edgeworthstown Tenants Association was formed. After a number of meetings, including ones with local T.D.'s it was decided to invite the I.R.A. (by now a totally illegal organisation) to get involved in the dispute. The results of this intervention were to be horrific.
On Saturday 9th February 1935, Gerald More hosted a dinner party and family reunion at Lisard House. A number of guests joined the family for the dinner which marked the reconciliation between Gerald and his son Richard, who had married without family approval about a year before. At 9p.m. four men, three of whom were dressed in Garda uniform, knocked on the hall door at Lisard House. They were all carrying loaded revolvers. When the door opened the four brushed past the startled maid and rushed into the dining room asking for Gerald. This would indicate that they were not from the area. Two of them grabbed Gerald and tried to remove him from the room. He grappled with his assailants and put up a strong resistance; he was beaten about the head with the revolvers, at this his son Richard tried to pull one of the men away. At this one of the men shot Richard in the back and he fell to the floor badly injured. At this stage another of the men shot at Gerald, the bullet struck a cigarette case in his dinner jacket and fragmented resulting in a minor wound to his side. The assailants then fled from the scene without obtaining their objective of removing Gerald from the house. One of the guests went to Edgeworthstown for the doctor and Gardai. Dr. Frank Yorke arrived at Lisard shortly after with Gardai. Richard lost a lot of blood and the doctor had his removal forthwith to a Dublin hospital where he died on the 20th February. The events at Lisard in the 9th February now turned into a murder investigation.
The local Gardai were assisted by a detective unit from Dublin named "The Broy Harriers". These were IRA members who had remained loyal to DeValera and were brought into the detective unit in 1932 under the new Commissioner, Eamon Broy. He replaced Eoin O'Duffy as Commissioner, O'Duffy being sacked by DeValera. A major round-up of IRA members in Longford and Leitrim took place in the course of the investigation and on April 1st four men, three from Leitrim and one from Longford were charged with Richard's murder. The case was heard before a judge and jury at the Central Criminal Court, Green St., Dublin.
The trial lasted eleven days after which the jury could not agree on a verdict and a new trial was ordered with the four accused remanded in custody. The new trial began at the same time on the 3rd December and after 8 days the jury returned a verdict of not guilty against all four and they were discharged. A large crowd turned out to greet these in Edgeworthstown on their return led by a torch light procession and marching bands. The murder of Richard remains unsolved. The events at Lisard and a few others like it around the country at the same time proved to be counter productive for the IRA DeValera finally lost his patience with the IRA (his former allies). Together with a strong law and order Minister of Justice, Gerald Boland, he introduced severe measures to deal with them. The measures included abolition of Trial by Jury, Introduction of Special Criminal Court (non-jury) and Military Courts (from which there was no appeal).
As a result of these measures several prominent I.R.A men were executed either by firing squad or hanging and more were allowed to die on hunger strike in the Curragh and also Portlaoise Prison. The O'Ferrall family subsequently left Lisard and went to live in Kildare. Lisard House was demolished in the 1950's and the lands were purchased by the Forestry Department. Richard was married to Moya Brady from Gowna. They had one daughter, Geraldine. She died a few months short of her 21st birthday and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. Longford Co. Council refused to condemn the murder. The murder achieved nothing and only resulted in the death of a totally innocent man while trying to save his father from a possibly similar fate.
In 1938 one of the four accused died while constructing a bomb at Castlefin, Co. Donegal. Did Richard More O'Ferrall finally find justice even in death?