The title continues: 'with the puffing out of the little farthing Rush-light, &amp; ye story of Moll Coggin.'  Lord Moira, in regimentals, stands stiffly in profile to the left on the edge of a headland; in his right hand is an unstrung long-bow, much taller than himself. Across the water (left) is a fantastic night-scene in Ireland.  Two soldiers by the waterside are seated over a large dish containing an infant which one is carving.  The other, his hand on a barrel of 'Whiskey', drains the contents of a skull; human bones lie beside them. A little drummer beats his drum with bones.  A soldier siezes a woman and is about to stab her with his bayonet.  Behind this group a (?) woman is suspended by one wrist from three gigantic spears forming a tripod.   Beside them (right) is a thatched cottage with a figure in distress just discernible through the door and with a lighted candle in the window. At this candle Moira is directing a blast (resembling a searchlight) from his pursed-up lips.  On a cliff above the cottage a man supports in his arms a huge oak, in whose branches are many swans, some of which fly away to the right.   Three frightened cows gallop off. Through the air, between Moira and the tree, gallops (right to left) a ram on which sits an old witch holding up a broom supporting a bonnet-rouge ; in her right hand she flourishes a bunch of serpents, emblem of discord or sedition.   In the sky (right) behind Moira's head is a full moon with a grinning face which illuminates a semicircle of clouds surrounding Moira's head, its reflection making a broad path on the sea.  Beneath the title is etched in three columns: ' - "Oh, my Lords, a Man who walks Erect, like me, can plainly discover, that \ "the Tyranny of the Curfew, is revived in its full extent in the North of Ireland; \ "I see the Lights &amp; Fires in all the Houses, extinguish'd by 9 0'Clock, &amp; the \ "whole body of United-Irishmen obliged to find their way to bed in the \ "dark! - ah, my Lords! there's one case, which I plainly beheld, of the \ "horrors attending on the vile system of Coercion; - see, see, how the bar- \ "barous Soldiery are putting out the Candle in a Home where a Child has \ "just taken ill of convulsive fits in the houping Cough; - look how the unhappy \ "Father rightemonstrates against the cruel order, don't you see, my Lords, how \ "the distracted Mother on her knees, requests permission to continue the \ "Rush Light? - do you think my Lords, that all this scene of Distress \ "is merely the Chimera of my own disorder'd Ideas? or that my Intellects \ "are disorganis'd because ye Moon's at the full? - ah, no! - if you have any \ "perception, do but look &amp; be convinced of the truth; behold how the feel \ "-ing &amp; pathetic remonstrance of the Parent is rejected, the house is \ "broken into, &amp; the Rush-light blown out! - O cruel &amp; barbarous Insult!!! \ "O Ireland! Ireland! - unhappy Country! what \ "oppressions art thou doom'd to suffer, Irish Men \ "dragged to Goal only for keeping Daggers in \ "their Houses to defend themselves; &amp; Impri- \ "soned, Picketed &amp; Shot, merely because assas- \ -"sinating Soldiers were found Hock'd, or \ "drowned in the Liffey! - Irish Women torn \ "from their families, &amp; Ravish'd to gratify Bri- \ "-tish Sensuality! - &amp; Irish Children devour'd \ "alive, to satisfy their carnivorous appetites!!! \ " - will any one deny this statement, my Lords? \ "or controvert the facts which I have seen with \ "my own Eyes? - why, the incredulous might as \ "well deny the existance of Moll Coggin, \ "the celebrated Irish-Enchantress, with whom \ "my Father, as well as myself, have had such \ "frequent Conversations; - as well, my Lords, my having seen her rightiding \ "upon a Black-Ram, with a Blue Tail; or that when I endeavoured to Fire at her \ "that ye Gun melted in my hand into a clear Jelly: - the noble Lords may Laugh, \ "but I declare ye facts upon my Veracity, - &amp;, that I pursued this fiend, into my \ "Ale cellar, where she rode instantly into the bung-hole of a beer-barrel: some \ "time after, my servants found the Ale full of Blue hairs, I was not surprised, as I \ "knew, that the blue hairs were the hairs of the Ram's blue Tail: - noble Lords may \ "stare, but the fact is as I relate it - this Moll Coggin, was the fiend who raised the Oak- \ -"boys to Rebellion: - I was also acquainted with the two Cow boys, mention'd by my Father, \ "they were my Tenants, &amp; were certainly endowed with supernatural powers, I have \ "known one of them Tear up by the roots, an Oak, two hundred foot high, &amp; bear it up - \ "-right on his head four Miles; his party were on that account called Oak-boys: - \ "noble Lords may Laugh, but I speak from certain knowledge, ye Oak Tree grew in \ "my Garden, &amp; I have often seen five hundred Swans perching on its boughs: these \ "Swans were very remarkable for devouring all the Snipes of ye Country, they flew \ "faster than any Snipe I ever saw, &amp; the Snipes could not resist their Talons: - I hope my Lords \ "you will excuse this digression, &amp;c &amp;c &amp;c------'
<p><br>Above the design: "He had it from his Father, who would tell you Fifty in a breath - ay, &amp; tell them, - 'till he believ'd them all himself." 12 March 1798 
</p>
<br>Hand-coloured etching
<div class="fn value">
<p>Print made by: James Gillray
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<dl><dd>Published by: Hannah Humphrey</dd></dl></div>
1798<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1798-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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