If no one will shoot the scoundrel Ill do it myself! So shouted Margaret Shield when she and her brother Lawrence were released from a short prison sentence for assaulting their arch-enemy Patrick Dunne, 30.
Margaret was true to her word. She waylaid Dunne on his way home from the pub at Philipstown, County Offaly, and shot him with a pistol. Not content with that, she cut his throat as he lay dying on the ground, while her brother, who was with her, ignominiously fled.
The jury at Tullamore Assizes was told that the feud was triggered by a dispute over land ownership. The Shields were jointly convicted of murder and hanged on Friday, May 27th, 1870, in Tullamore Prison.