All that remains of what was once a vibrant New Brunswick logging community called New Ireland is a cemetery now being overtaken by forest, several ancient stone foundations and a crime story that made headlines around the world.
It may be a ghost town now, but New Ireland was the site of a brutal ax murder that led to three separate trials of a young British man in the early 20th century and set a precedent in Canada’s legal system .
Moncton historian and educator James Upham says visiting the area still gives him a “very strange” feeling.
New Ireland is located west of Riverside-Albert, near the northeast corner of what is now Fundy National Park. St. Agatha’s Catholic Cemetery, where the Reverend EJ McAuley and his cousin and housekeeper Mary Ann McAuley are buried, is a part of the community that still stands.
This stone marks the graves of both Reverend EJ McAuley and his cousin Mary Ann McAuley. St. Agatha’s Catholic Cemetery is the only site in New Ireland that is still mowed and maintained. (Khalil Akhtar/CBC)
“This was a major event,” Upham said of the 1906 crime.
“This is somewhat comparable to the Lindbergh baby. This was big news when the trial first took place. It’s a headline-grabbing ax murder.”
Catch fish and chop wood
The story begins when a young Irishman named Tom Collins arrived in Albert County between 1905 and 1906 from England. He was hired by Reverend McAuley to help the rectory and church in New Ireland.
“They had horses that needed to be taken care of. They had wood that needed to be cut. They had physical work that needed to be done,” Upham said. “Unfortunately, at some point in this process there appears to have been a bit of a disagreement.”
This photo of Tom Collins appeared in the Daily Telegraph on September 11, 1906, with the headline “Thomas F. Collins, Albert County Murder Suspect.” (New Brunswick Provincial Archives)
According to Upham’s investigation, Collins said the disagreement was over the number of fish he had caught one day, when Mary Ann sent him to a nearby lake for dinner. McAuley was out and the two were alone on the property.
Mary Ann was upset that Collins hadn’t taken enough and sent him to chop wood in the pit, where she continued to scold him.
Collins decided to leave New Ireland and the rectory as a result of the discussion.
“At that point, though, he also stole the place,” Upham said. “We know because he says he did. And when they arrested him, they caught him carrying stuff he stole from the building we’re in right now.”
Upham said there is no doubt that Collins stole items such as a gold watch from the rectory. There is also no doubt that someone murdered Mary Anne with a straight razor and an axe.
An article in the Daily Telegraph of 4 July 1907 recounts the evidence presented at Collins’ second trial at Hopewell Cape.
“The murderer, whoever he was, was not content with striking a blow which crashed through the victim’s skull and brain, but also cut his throat, as if to make doubly sure of the horrible done”, the story. reads.
Collins tried 3 times
Upham describes the community as a kind of “Twin Peaks”, noting that it was a remote Catholic community in a Protestant world.
James Upham always has a “weird feeling” when he explores what remains of the New Ireland community. He says the records show that if you looked out the front window of the rectory, you would see the cemetery. (Khalil Akhtar/CBC)
“There is mistrust, there is mistrust, there is misinformation.”
At Collins’ first murder trial in January 1907, Reverend McAuley testified, and the verdict was guilty. However, that decision was overturned because the judge was found to have erred in his instructions to the jury.
Mary Ann McAulay was brutally murdered in 1906 outside the Catholic rectory in New Ireland. (Albert County Museum)
“He will not walk to the gallows,” says an article in The Daily Gleaner on February 23, 1907. It goes on to explain that the judge in the first trial had instructed the jury that certain facts had been absolutely proven, when they should have been. have been left to the jury’s decision.
“That got Tom a second trial and that was the first time, as I understand it in Canadian history, where a legal decision was overturned based on the judge’s dismissal or the judge’s instructions to the jury,” Upham said.
“And this was a moment in Canadian history where we said, ‘Yes, the law actually goes beyond what the guy on the bench thinks or assumes he can do.’ It’s a huge moment because you have a Catholic guy who has no friends and no friends. the family in this country is protected by a legal system that was not necessarily built to protect their ancestors.”
At that first trial, Collins did not take the witness stand, but many friends and relatives in England sent letters about his good character.
Between the first and second trials, the case made headlines again when on February 3, 1907, Reverend McAuley died suddenly of “apoplexy” or what we would probably call a stroke.
The Daily Telegraph reported Reverend McAuley’s sudden death, which occurred between the first and second trials of Tom Collins. His death was attributed to the murder of his cousin and mistress, Mary Ann McAuley. (New Brunswick Provincial Archives)
In the second trial, held just six months later in the summer of 1907, Collins testified in his own defense. He admitted to robbing Reverend McAuley, but said he didn’t kill Mary Ann. Her lawyers argued that all of the prosecution’s evidence was circumstantial and that someone else had killed Mary Ann.
The first jury convicted Collins of murder, but that verdict was later overturned and two more trials were held. (New Brunswick Provincial Archives)
The second trial ended in a hung jury. By the time the third trial was held, Upham said, the case was so famous that it was nearly impossible to find an impartial jury. The third trial reached the same conclusion as the first: death by hanging.
“And in the third trial, honestly, it looks like they just gave up and said to hell with it, hang him,” Upham said.
“So a young man who had possibly done nothing but steal a place, was hanged to death on the hill from here.”
The Daily Telegraph reported Collins’ death on November 16, 1907. Collins was the only prisoner to be hanged in the Albert County Jail, and one of the last men hanged in New Brunswick. (New Brunswick Provincial Archives)
On the morning of November 15, 1907, Collins became the only prisoner ever to be hanged in the Albert County Jail, and one of the last in New Brunswick.
He was buried in an unmarked grave outside the prison at Hopewell Cape. According to the Albert County Museum, his body was reburied in a nearby cemetery 60 years later.
The Tom Collins case was referred to the Supreme Court to justify the double jeopardy amendment to the Canadian Criminal Code.
The community is gone, the controversy continues
More than 100 years ago, the community was divided over the guilt or innocence of Tom Collins, and that division continues to this day in Albert County, Upham said.
“You can have a pretty heated argument with certain people in Albert County about what really happened here,” he said. “There are people who will swear to you that Tom was innocent, that Father McAuley did it. There are people who will tell you that there are people in the neighborhood who did it.”
Upham says there is still debate in Albert County about Tom Collins’ guilt in Mary Ann McAuley’s murder. (Khalil Akhtar/CBC)
Upham said that two weeks before Collins arrived in New Ireland, someone broke into the rectory and stole alcohol.
“Sometimes it’s tempting to look at these small communities historically and say everything was perfect and rosy until, you know, something happened or something terrible happened.”
Upham said the remaining cemetery and old stone foundations are one of thousands of roadside monuments where you can “stop and look around and say, ‘OK, there’s more.'” And this is one of the best again.”
“We’re in the middle of a vital community that existed for generations,” he said. “Where one of the most interesting legal events in Canadian history took place, where a horrific tragedy occurred and the only thing that remembers it is a demolished basement and a cemetery that is being reclaimed by trees.”
News Morning – Moncton 14:28 Road Story: The Story of a Grizzly Kill and a Visit to the Same Place It Happened in the Woods of Albert County
History columnist James Upham visits the site where Mary Ann McAuley was murdered in 1906 and recounts the infamous court cases that followed.