Executions at The Shopping Centre #history #ireland #documentary #irish #historyfacts #facts

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Did you know that when you walk into Carlow Shopping Centre, you are passing under the execution site where dozens of convicts were hanged for their crimes?

[00:00:08]This concrete edge marks the former location of this very trapdoor through which the unfortunate criminals were dropped and the ultimate price was paid.

[00:00:16]In 1835, the execution of Lucinda Sly, the last woman ever publicly hanged in Carlow, took place here in front of a crowd of 10,000 people who mocked and jeered the prisoner. 57-year-old Lucinda, the wife of a Protestant landowner, and her 27-year-old Catholic lover, John Dempsey, were convicted of the murder of Walter Sly. Lucinda had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her brutish and domineering husband, yet neither the public nor the authorities had any sympathy for her and the unfortunate lovers were brutally hanged for a crime that wasn't truth, an act of self-defense. The couple were then promptly buried behind the prison infirmary where the rear of the shopping center now stands. The prison ceased operation in the 19th century and was used as an engineering works for many years before opening as a shopping center in 1994. If you'd like to learn more about the story of Lucinda Sly, you can find a full documentary on my YouTube channel.