BURSTING OF A POLICEMANS RIFLE
While the men of the Caherciveen district (Co. Kerry) were enaged at their usual ball practice last week an extraordinary incident occurred, and one which might have been attended with very grave consequences. While Constable McDonagh was firing, and when he had reached the sixteenth round (the range being 300 yards), his rifle burst. A portion of the barrel and stock split, and the rifle rebounding, struck the constable on the right temple, inflicting several severe wounds. No cause for the strange occurrence can be assigned. The whole proceedings were most properly conducted by the efficient officer (Mr. MacDonald), and there must have been some flaw in the rifle barrel. There is a feeling growing in the Force that many of the rifle barrels are honeycombed to an alarming extent, and this is a matter that deserves the strictest attention. The injured constable is progressing satisfactorily.
Irish Times 5th June 1897
This would have been the Snider carbine.
