Ireland, Outrage Reports 1836-1840
Discover your ancestor in the thousands of outrage reports created by the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1836 to 1840.
See description
Discover your ancestor in the thousands of outrage reports created by the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1836 to 1840.
Learn more about these records
Each record will give you a transcript and an image. The detail found in the transcripts will vary depending on how much information was recorded in the original record.
- Name – in many reports, only the surname is recorded
- Sex
- Birth year
- Event date
- Address
- Parish
- County
- Archive, series, and piece number
Image
View the image to discover more about why your ancestor appears in these records. The original record will provide you with a short description of the event or offence reported. For example, when we view the image of the record for William Gregg, we find that his house was set on fire by a former tenant he had evicted in 1840.
The Ireland, outrage reports were created by chief constables of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). The constables were charged with writing a short summary of incidents that occurred within their county and sending the reports to the Inspector General of Constabulary. The outrage reports include descriptions of theft, assault, suicide, rescue of cattle, infanticide, arson, highway robbery, and much more.
There are over 18,000 reports available. The original records are held by The National Archives in London. The records are part of series HO100 and include the following piece numbers: 231, 248, 249, 252-256, and 259-262. The detail recorded in each report varied depending on the constable recording the event and the information available at the time of the incident. In many cases, only the victim’s name is recorded because the offender was unknown or had not been caught. Your ancestor’s name may appear in the records if they were a victim of a crime such as an assault, if they committed a crime, or if they were a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary and either created the report or were named in the report.
In the records
The reports provide an insight into Irish life in the nineteenth century prior to the famine. Below are some examples of occurrences you will find within the outrage reports.
- In Maydow, Longford, on May 1838, Thomas Gunning and William Wheeler were executing tithe decrees. A tithe was a tax on labourers by the Anglican Church. The tax money went to the maintenance of the church and clergy. It was strongly opposed in Ireland. Gunning and Wheeler were threatened by a group of 50 people but escaped without injury.
- John Dwyer of Monaghan died on 22 December 1839 from a blow he received from John Reilly earlier that year on 2 May. At the time of the report, Reilly had fled.
- On 25 July 1840, two prisoners escaped from Omagh gaol in Tyrone.
- The outrage reports were collected and summarised to create monthly reports for each county. For example, in January 1840, in Donegal, 111 people received summary convictions for road nuisances. Summary convictions were given for lesser crimes; usually, the offender had to pay a fine or spend a short period of time in prison.