On the night of 29–30 October 1816 eight people were murdered by burning to death in a house known as Wildgoose Lodge in a remote part of County Louth, four miles from Ardee, nine miles from Dundalk and four miles from Carickmacross in County Monaghan. The perpetrators, who all belonged to a local agrarian secret society, were avenging three of their comrades hanged for a raid on the Lodge the previous April. Following the murders, the local community closed ranks. For months the authorities failed to arrest anyone. Then the state administration—in the form of Sir Robert Peel and Dublin Castle—took over. As a result of a combination of collusion, corruption and the use of paid informers, eighteen local men were tried and hanged. At least half of these men were innocent.