SAMUEL CALLISTON

On the 29th January 1864,a twenty-year-old man by the name of Samuel Calliston appeared before the magistrate of the local court of Petty Session charged with disturbing the peace. In the course of questioning, it transpired that he had attended St.John's Church of Ireland at Mullabrack the previous week and during the sermon had issued an exclamation before discharging a pistol in the air.

Sinister though the event appeared, it was in fact a gesture of the young man's love for a young lady belonging to the congregation. Previous gestures included standing in the middle of the street all night in an attempt to catch a glimpse of her in the morning. All his advances repulsed, Calliston went to the Church and fired the pistol to gain the young lady's attention.

He was immediately apprehended by the police and taken into custody. At his court appearance, he was ordered to be imprisoned at Armagh Jail for a term of two months. Local residents immortalised his story in the words of a ballad,

REFERENCES
McHugh, A Guide to St.John's Parish Church Mullabrack (Mullabrack, 1985)