James Moriley

Who is James Moriley?

James Moriley, murderer, executed 13 August 1766.

Moriley was a native of Balleville, County Mayo.

In May 1764, a travelling pedlar named Patrick Handly took lodgings for the night in the village of Moate. Handly was killed by Moriley, who was arrested and tried for the crime in Ballinrobe in 1766. He was found guilty, but acknowledgted the justice of the sentence, and appeared very penitent.

He was hung in Ballinrobe on the 13 August, his body hanged in chains where he committed the murder. He was decapitated, his head spiked on a pole in a field in Moate, which was afterwards called Garrai an Chloiginn.

For a long time after, the Morley families in the locality were, reproachfully, called Muirilli na gCloigeann.