Neddy Lohan (died 1820) was an Irish captain of the Whiteboys, a secret agrarian society in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland that engaged in rural unrest and violence.
Biography
Lohan served as a captain of a group of Whiteboys operating in the Moylough area of County Galway, Ireland. They were opposed by Charles O'Rourke, a local landlord based in Moylough, who arrested suspected members and engaged them in pitched battles.
An ambush was planned by the Whiteboys upon learning of O'Rourke's route on a given night. However, a young landowner named Brown was travelling the same road that night and was killed in the belief that he was O'Rourke. Brown was reportedly well-regarded by local people and the Whiteboys.
O'Rourke arrested several men, and upon the information of an informer named Seamus a'Burca, Lohan was sentenced to death for the crime. Prior to sentencing, Lohan was asked if there were any gentlemen on the jury who could give him a character recommendation. Lohan pointed out a Mr. Blake of Garbally. When asked what he had to say about Lohan, Blake replied: "I never saw two dogs fighting, my lord, but Lohan would be the third."
Lohan was taken from Galway jail to be hanged, as was the custom, at his own door. He sat on his coffin on a cart during the journey. At Turloughmore, he recognised a friend called O'Shaughnessy and threw him his hat, exclaiming "I will you my old hat." This was afterwards referred to as "Lohan's Last Will and Testament."
Lohan was hanged in front of a crowd of hundreds at Cooloo Hill, in sight of his house. Two of his sisters were present, and it was recorded that they were never in their right mind afterwards. The local historian Martin Finnerty recorded that his grandmother witnessed the event.
Sources
The account of Neddy Lohan is primarily drawn from Punann Arsa, part I, by Martin Finnerty, published in the Galway Observer in 1951, and is preserved in the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin.
