Davitt--Land Warrior: Kevin Haddick Flynn looks back at the life and times of radical Michael Davitt as Ireland remembers the centenary of his death on May 31st.(Biography)

AS DAWN WAS BREAKING on April 3rd, 1878, a crusty, seventy-two-year-old Irish landlord, William Sidney Clements, 3rd Earl of Leitrim, was travelling on his horse and sidecar along a deserted roadway near his estate in County Donegal when he was ambushed by a number of armed men who pointed their weapons directly at him and brought him to a halt.

The first shot killed his driver, who had sought to shield him, and two more mortally wounded his clerk. Then Mickey Rua McElwee jumped upon the sidecar and threw the Earl to the ground. The others moved in, and clubbed him with their ...

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