This was a gallant Irish soldier, discharged with honour after the Crimean war, and known in the country as "Balaklava," because he was one of the "noble six hundred," who there rode "into the jaws of death, into the valley of hell." His name was Finlay, and he was a Catholic.

At a meeting in Woodford, Father Coen (the priest now in arrears), it is said, looked significantly at Finlay, and said, "no process-server will be got to serve processes for Sir Henry Burke of Marble Hill." The words and the look were thrown away on the veteran who had faced the roar and the crash of the Russian guns, and later on, in December 1885, Finlay did his duty, and served the processes given to him.

From that moment he and his wife were "boycotted." His own kinsfolk dared not speak to him.

His house was attacked by night.

He was a doomed man.