Eileen Mary Warburton Biggs - Protestant Housewife

Born:- 20/06/1879 - Donnybrook, Dublin                                 Died:- 09/04/1950 -St Patricks Hospital, Dublin 

 

Sexually assaulted and gang-raped at home in Hazelpoint, Dromineer

In the early hours of 16/06/1922 an “outrage” was committed against a Protestant married woman at her home in Hazelpoint, Dromineer. The term ‘outrage’ as used in the parlance of the day was to mask the very seriousness of the crime. In actual fact it was rape but more than just rape, it was a particulary vicious gang rape taking place with four armed men who took over the house, keeping the victims husband Samuel and an elderly house guest, Thomas Webb from Ballycraggan, prisoner over the next few hours whilst the victim was systematically raped and abused. The victim is often mis-reported as being Harriet Biggs. In fact her full name was Eileen Mary Gertrude Warburton-Robinson Biggs. Her husband was Samuel Dickson Biggs. 

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(Harriet Biggs was a spinster from Cornalack, Terryglass, the subject of a case of unreciprocated love, attempted knifing, axeing and abduction. She featured in several court cases in December 1919 arising from the assault by a cousin and employee who was infatuated by her.)

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These are Eileen Biggs own words….

“……About 9 o’clock on the evening of the 16th of June 1922, several men in uniform came to the residence of my husband and self at Hazelpoint, Nenagh, Co Tipperary and took away Mr Biggs’ motor-car, stating that it would be returned later. Later after midnight of the same day (about 12.30 a.m.) several men came to the house, put my husband into one room and put Mr Webb, a gentleman staying with us, into another room. The men were all armed and there were no servants in the house then. The men were in I.R.A. uniform. They ransacked the house. Two men came into the room where I was , threw me on the bed and criminally assaulted me. Other men came in from time to time and did the same thing. Then I was put into another room in the charge of one man and he did likewise. When the men left about 2.30 p.m. my husband was allowed out of his room and found me in a state of collapse. I was then taken to Dublin and put under the care of Dr Ella Webb who treated me. I have since been suffering from shock and nervous prostration. After a few weeks I was able to come to England and have been under the care of several doctors and specialist living with my husband in several lodging places in London….”

There is one major fact that stand out here….and that is that there appears to be two groups. The first takes the car. There is no mention of it’s return. The inference is the first group were polite and offered no harm. They merely wanted to ‘borrow the car’. The second group arrived with evil intent, smashing the place up and getting drunk before assaulting and raping Eileen. The rapists also seemed to take great pleasure in keeping Samuel updated on the progress of the assault. Whats not mentioned is that there would have been a Black Springer Spaniel in the house but this was not an attack dog. Samuel also appears to have lost a Double Barrelled Lewes Shotgun at the time as this was later recovered and entered into the R.I.C. register at Ballincollig. Samuel was ineffect helpless to intervene. The fierceness of the assault left the very real fear that one of her legs would be amputated. Whatever of her physical injuries which would heal in time, mentally Eileen was scarred for life. 

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So who were the Biggs and why were they targeted? Samuel Dickson Biggs was the second son of Samuel Dickson Biggs of Bellevue House in Coolbaun. He wasn’t a ‘big house’ protestant, rather he worked for a living primarily in South Africa and Rhodesia as a farmer. Other members of both families were involved in the military. 

On the 10/01/1918 Samuel Junior married Eileen Warburton-Robinson, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Robinson, surgeon general in the Royal Army Medical Corps. She was 39 and Samuel was 44. They married in Kilbarron Church of Ireland and moved to their new home at Hazelpoint. 

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It has been suggested that the Military connections of both families is what prompted such ferocity in the treatment of Eileen Biggs. The actual reason may be more prosaic. In May 1920, Samuel Biggs took Edward Fahy to the Petty Sessions to have him removed from the Gate Lodge property at Hazelpoint, Shannonvale. Clearly Fahy refused to go quietly and two more cases were heard with the final one on 09/05/1921 when a warrant was issued for Fahy to vacate the property within 7 to 14 days. 

Now here is where it gets interesting…Edward Fahy’s mother’s maiden name was Julia Hogan. According to The Weekly Freeman of 12/08/1922 as it reported on a Special Court enquiry into the crime, the main perpetrators were Patrick & Edward Hogan and their cousins Michael and James Grace. They had already spent six weeks in custody for the crime. A fifth suspect, Martin Hogan was on the run in Dublin. The Special Court was adjourned due to the severity of Eileen’s injuries. Prosecuting solicitor and Coroner James O’Brien stated the government was determined ‘to punish offenders with the utmost rigour of the law. The suspects were granted bail based on a surety of £200 each. Meanwhile a note was issued by James O’Brien to Frank McGrath to contact ‘headquarters’ with a view to apprehending Martin Hogan.

After her ordeal, Eileen and her husband moved to Dublin and later to London while she tried to recuperate. Although the Special Court had convened, the case was never prosecuted so justice for Eileen was never meted out. She was however awarded the significantly large sum of £6000 by the Irish Grants Committee by way of  recompense. No amount of money however could eradicate the mental trauma both Eileen and her husband had endured. Samuel was unable to find employment and died in Monkstown in 1937. In 1924, Eileen’s sister Daisy ‘fell’ from a top story window of a house in Dublin’s Pembroke Road. The stigma of the events at Hazelpoint would dog their heels wherever the family went. Eileen would eventally be committed to and died within the walls of St Patricks Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin, constantly reliving that night over and over again. 

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Martin Hogan, who was implicated in Eileens rape and assault was tracked down allegedly by members of the Oriel House Gang from Westland Row in Dublin. This group were a quasi-police force and counter-insurgency unit working independently of the Civic Guards. Hogans bullet riddled body was found on Grace Park Road in Drumcondra, Dublin having previously been abducted by up to 10 men at Eccles Place, Dublin on 21/04/1923. His body was dumped the following day. When Hogans girlfriend enquired as to his whereabots at Oriel House, she was advised to try the morgue. Although a plaque was erected on Grace Park Road to commemorate Hogan, a query on 25/05/2023 by Councillor Gilliland at a meeting of Dublin City Council, asked how this particular monument could be removed from Grace Park Road.

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Terrifying as Eileen Biggs treatment was, this wasn’t an isolated case in the Nenagh area. On 29/07/1922 a group of armed men broke into Sopwell Hall at Cloughjordan, the mansion of the Hon. Cosby Trench. Mr Trench wasn’t there at the time but his servants were. Edward Egan, an estate labourer had been given orders for he and his brother to sleep in the house as protection for the female servants. Both Egan and his brother William were searched and locked in their room. Similar methods were used. Ostensibly the raiders  broke in demanding beds for 5 members of a Flying Column. They were armed with rifles, shotguns, revolvers and bayonets. They stole plate and jewellry and anything that was of value that could be carried away. They also broke into the wine cellar and stole Brandy, Whiskey and Port. The female servants were separated into Catholic and Protestant and the Catholic girl and Kitchen-maid, Miss Flaherty told to leave the house. Then the Protestant women, Miss Stringer the Housekeeper and Miss Alton a Housemaid, were assaulted. The women pleaded with their assailants to stop and offered money as an inducement.  A young child in their charge was present while all this was taking place. 

Significantly, the attackers were local and despite wearing masks, they were easily identified by their voices and four of them were arrested on the 14th of August and brought to trial. Three of them, Denis King, Martin Downes and John Mooney received 10 years penal servitude and a fourth John Hough received 5 years. The judge commended the officers of Oriel House for their rapid apprehension of the culprits

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Meanwhile up the road at Roscrea on 01/08/1922, the wife of a steward William McKenna at Golden Grove was kidnapped with her son, tied to a tree and assaulted. She was seventy five. In her husbands words…

“…..she will never recover from the outrage committed on her….” 

McKenna was seventy-two himself and could no longer remain at Golden Grove. The family fled to Belfast. 

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In Dundrum, single mother Kate Maher was found murdered by blunt force trauma to the base of her skull on 21/12/1920. There was also evidence of extensive wounding to her vagina. Kate had spent the evening with a group of soldiers beforehand. One of these, Private Thomas Bennett was Courts Martialled at Cork Barracks for her murder but was acquitted because he would have been too drunk to inflict the injuries and no blood having been found on his clothing

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Elsewhere in the country, in Kenmare two girls were dragged from their beds, had axle grease spread on their hair and were beaten with Sam Browne belts. Other cases had women shorn of their hair because of their fraternisation with the Police or Military. In Moate in Co Westmeath a woman was raped by a gang of armed men resulting in her pregnancy. She delivered the baby in Holles St Hospital, in Dublin well away from her neighbours. She ended up writing to Archbishop Edward Byrne seeking help to arrange the adoption of the son resulting from the rape. She asked for £20, the fee to arrange the adoption otherwise the baby would be returned to her and she would be exposed in small town Ireland as an unmarried mother. The girl was distraught to the point of contemplating suicide.

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Growing up in Ireland, I wholeheartedly gave creedence to the notion that the War of Independence and Civil War were heroic wars. It had been instilled that ours were Holy Wars against the godless invaders. Our local heroes could do no wrong and peoples families were judged by which side they stood on after the Treaty. Now I find that just as in any other conflict, once the blood is up the basest of mens desires were given free rein and gender based violence is to the fore. You read about the savagery meted out in the Pogroms in Poland and Belarus. It comes as a bit of a shock to find our own people were equally capable of such brutality. I suspect that as time moves on, more of these cases will be revealed and the entitlement to commemorative monuments will needs must have to be re-evaluated.