November 21 1924
A terrible tragedy was enacted on a lonely road in the Dublin mountains on Tuesday night, the victim being the wife of Mr Darrell Figgis, TD.
The first incident in connection with the shocking occurrence took place at 11pm, when a taxi driver was asked by the deceased, who was then unknown to him, to take her for a drive into the country.
Taking her place in the taxi the unfortunate lady asked to be driven to the Hell Fire Club, the picturesque ruin that crowns Mount Pelier in the Dublin Mountains.
The taxi was soon speeding through the suburbs and through the village of Rathfarnham bound for its strange destination on the mountain heights. The Hell Fire Club was not, however, reached, nor indeed perhaps was it intended that it should be. The driver was startled by the sound of two revolver shots as he passed near the village of Ballyboden. On looking round he was shocked to see his fare lying back in the car in a limp condition. He brought the taxi to a standstill, and, going round, observed that the lady had a bullet wound in her temple and was bleeding profusely. A Webley revolver lay in the bottom of the vehicle. She was unconscious. The chauffeur drove her to Rathfarnham Civic Guard Station, where he told the officer in charge all that had happened. Accompanied by Civic Guards she was brought to the Meath Hospital in the same taxi. She died at four o’clock on Wednesday morning without regaining consciousness.
Mr Robert Kerr, the driver of the taxi in which Mrs Figgis travelled, told a Press representative the following story of the occurrence: -
“I left the Shelbourne Garage at eleven o’clock last night with Mrs Darrell Figgis, who was going to the Hell Fire Club Tearooms. She was dressed in her walking-out clothes and appeared to be in a quite normal state. She said nothing to me until we got beyond Terenure. There she put her head out of the car. Her hat was then off, and she said: “Send the account to my husband, Mr Darrell Figgis, 17 Lower Fitzwilliam Street”. I said it would be quite all right. We proceeded on through the village of Rathfarnham, beyond the Y Low House, and opposite the Bloomfield Laundry, when I heard a revolver shot immediately behind me. I pulled up at once, and then I heard another shot.
Mildred “Millie” was an English nurse who married Darrell Figgis in 1905. She killed herself with a gun supplied to Figgis by Michael Collins. Figgis killed himself the following year.
