Rape or Debauchery in the Archbishop's Palace at Tallaght, 1800
Rape or Debauchery in the Archbishop’s Palace, Tallaght in 1800. On the 7 th of October, in the year of our Lord, 1800, Ensign Edward Smith, an Irishman serving with the Durham Fencibles was brought from Kilmainham Gaol to Green-Street Sessions House charged with the rape of a young woman in the Archbishop’s Palace at Tallaght two months earlier. Before Chief Justice Lord Kilwarden of Newlands House and the Right Hon. Justice Kelly, Edward Smith pleaded not guilty. The case for his defence was diligently made. The scene of the crime The Archbishop’s palace in Tallaght was by 1800 past its best. Its upkeep was beyond both the needs and the means of the Archdiocese. It would, 21 years later, be disposed of under an Act of Parliament and leveled by Major Palmer, its rubble used in the construction of Tallaght House, Palmer's substantial private residence. By 1800 the Archbishop rarely stayed in his summer Palace or country-seat in Tallaght following a