On Thursday, March 14, 1895, Mary Kennedy bundled up to visit her ailing, 26-year-old niece, Bridget Cleary. It was a quick, half-mile walk over the bridge and up the hill to the Cleary’s cottage in Ballyvadlea of County Tipperary, Ireland. But as Kennedy approached the house that evening, she heard shouting and, when she opened the door, saw six men holding Bridget to her bed. “Are you [Bridget] Boland, the wife of Michael Cleary, in the name of God?” Michael yelled at his wife as five others, including three of…
