THE United Nations has designated today (August 22) as a day to commemorate the "victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief".

And this summer is also the 150th anniversary of what was arguably the worst sectarian crime that has ever been committed in St Helens.

Perhaps those involved in recent riots in this country might want to reflect upon what acts of intolerance can lead to.

The barbaric attack began on July 20 1874 when six miners aged between 18 and 26 broke into the Parr home of Peter (or Patrick) McGragh in Waine Street, off Park Road.

The Irishman was in his late seventies and after being beaten up had the sum of six shillings and three farthings taken off him.

On the following evening they returned to Waine Street and attacked a small row of houses, broke their windows and threatened their Irish residents.

The six then invaded the home of McGrath, blinded the old man in one eye, filled his eye socket with liquid lime and beat him with their fists and feet.

Within two hours the police had Stephen Cowley, Thomas Cruise, Thomas and Robert Woosey and John and William Swift in custody.

The injuries and the manner of how they were caused were so life changing to Mr McGragh that he was later reported to have been driven insane.

The elderly victim was never physically or mentally well enough to attend court but from his bed in St Helens Cottage Hospital gave this deposition to magistrates: "Cowley was the first to come in, and he asked for a candle. When the candle was lit I was struck by Cowley on the left eye, and my eye burst in my head. I shouted ‘Oh murder, my eye is smashed,’ and I threw it on the floor. The two Swifts came in with lime in their hands, and rubbed it on my face and all down my throat. The lime was wet. Cruise was standing beside me, and he poured lime out of a bucket down my throat."

The St Helens Newspaper strongly believed that the incident was what we would call a hate crime and in an editorial published on August 8 1874 wrote: "He [McGrath] was subjected not only to the rough and brutal violence in which a certain class of the population seem to delight, but also to an ingenuity of torture more in keeping with the characteristics of savages than of people nominally civilised.

"It is quite apparent that there is still a class of our people who hate their Irish neighbours with a deadly hatred, and are cowardly enough to wreak it upon those who, by reason of sex or old age, cannot make a formidable resistance."

The prompt action of the St Helens bobbies in making quick arrests furnished strong evidence against the accused.

The police, of course, lacked modern-day crime-fighting techniques but they had no need for fingerprints or DNA forensics as all but one of the men bore traces of lime on their clothes.

On December 10 1874 the six accused faced trial at Liverpool Assizes. As Thomas Woosey had nothing on his clothing to link him to the atrocity, Judge Mellor ordered the jury to acquit him but the five other defendants were found guilty.

Violent offences were not treated very seriously in the 1870s with most offenders only fined or bound over.

But the severity of the attack on the Irishman horrified the judge.

He categorised the outrage as a scandal to civilisation and handed down sentences of between 12 and 20 years. T

The St Helens Newspaper in describing the sentencing wrote: "There was sensation in court when the sentence of the court had been delivered, and we hope there will also be such a sensation in Parr as will have a wholesome effect upon the vicious and brutal amongst the population of that and every other township in the borough."

Stephen Wainwright's latest book The Hidden History Of St Helens Vol 4 is available from the St Helens Book Stop in Bridge Street and online from eBay and Amazon with free delivery. Price £12. Vols 1 to 3 are also still available.