School: Newtownmount Kennedy
- Location:
- Newtown Mountkennedy, Co. Wicklow
- Teacher: Ida Hutchinson
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0927, Page 167
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- Lieut. Arthur Hempenstall was one time officer in the Wicklow milita in Ireland, and he was known as The Walking Gallows during the years '98. Hempenstall was a man of enormous stature to whom the infliction of cruelty on others was the very spice of his existence. His particular form of savage amusement was to meet a peasant by the wayside and he questioned him. If he found the answers were unsatisfactory he knocked him with a blow of his fists, and then seized him half or wholly unconscious, and hanged him on his back until he was dead. This is how Hempenstall received his title as 'The Walking Gallows'.
Hempenstall was born in the village of Newcastle, Co Wicklow, about the year 1766, and he grew up to manhood amidst the peaceful(continues on next page)
