At 2:25pm on the 30th March 1835 Lucinda Sly, a 57 year old Carlow woman was taken from her cell in the county gaol to begin the short walk to the gallows that awaited outside. As the executioner placed a noose around her neck and she took her final glance of this mortal realm the events of the previous months that led to this terrifying moment raced through her mind. She thought of her young lover, John Dempsey whose feet she could hear shuffling behind as he too felt the hangman’s rope tighten around his neck, she thought of the years of abuse she had suffered at the hands of her brutish husband Walter Sly, she thought of the bullet that had passed through his skull, freeing her from his tyranny and how quickly her hopes of a happy life with John had slipped from her grasp.
Outside the prison a crowd of 10000 people jostled for position as they bayed for her blood. Lucinda Sly, despite her suffering, had become a figure of hate. In the eyes of many of those who gathered to watch her demise she had betrayed her vows of marriage, she had betrayed her Protestant faith by taking a young Catholic lover and was responsible not only for the death of her husband but for the impending hanging of 27 year old John Dempsey whom she had led so far from the path of righteousness. As the clock struck 2:30 pm Lucinda and John walked out onto the gallows together as the crowd mocked and jeered, the hangman inspected the rope around their necks, raised his arm and pulled a lever and together the ill fated couple were launched into eternity.
This is the story of the unfortunate life and death of Lucinda Sly, her marriage to a violent drunkard, her desperate bid for freedom with her illicit lover and her conviction for murder that led to an execution so brutal that she became the last woman to ever be publicly hanged in the County of Carlow.